SYDNEY, Australia, April 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Immutep Limited (ASX: IMM; NASDAQ: IMMP) ("Immutep” or “the Company”), is pleased to announce that Batavia Biosciences, its manufacturing partner for its preclinical candidate, IMP761, has made significant progress in the cell line development for the product candidate which is an immunosuppressive agonist antibody to LAG-3.

Using its STEP^®-mAb technology, Batavia Biosciences has developed a pharmaceutical-grade, stable CHO cell line that produces significantly high product yields of IMP761. The Company will now complete the preparations for the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) process compliance development phase, ahead of clinical testing of the compound in autoimmune disease.

Immutep reported encouraging preclinical results from its studies of IMP761 in early 2019. The in vivo studies showed that IMP761 decreases inflammatory T cell infiltration induced by intra-dermal injection of an antigen. As a targeted immunosuppressive antibody, IMP761 has the potential to address the root cause of autoimmune diseases by specifically silencing the autoimmune memory T cells accumulating at the disease site which express LAG-3 as an exhaustion marker after being repeatedly stimulated with dominant self-peptides at the disease site. These findings were published in the peer-reviewed paper in the Journal of Immunology, in January 2020.

Batavia Biosciences’ CEO, Menzo Havenga Ph.D., said: “We are pleased that our STEP^®-mAb proves its value in the development of this important IgG4-based LAG-3 immunotherapy product, IMP761.”

Immutep CEO, Marc Voigt stated: “IMP761 is the first agonist antibody that targets the immune checkpoint LAG-3 for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, such as inflammatory bowel diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. The cell line which was developed seems to be highly potent and we are excited to be moving closer to clinical testing of this promising product candidate to treat the root cause of autoimmune diseases.”

About Immutep

Further information can be found on the Company’s website www.immutep.com or by contacting:

Australian Investors/Media:
Catherine Strong, Citadel-MAGNUS
+61 (0)406 759 268; cstrong@citadelmagnus.com

U.S. Media:
Garth Russell, LifeSci Advisors
+1 (646) 876-3613; garth@lifesciadvisors.com