The University of Manchester and Immunocore Limited KTP 24_25 R2

A pharmaceutical company and a university are joining forces to turn a promising new class of cancer drugs into medicines that can be reliably manufactured at scale. The drugs in question are ImmTAX molecules—a type of bispecific protein designed to redirect a patient’s own immune cells to attack tumours. While these molecules show therapeutic potential, they are notoriously difficult to formulate into stable, injectable products. The problem is that their complex structure makes them prone to degradation, aggregation, or loss of activity during processing and storage. This project aims to develop new formulation methods that prevent these failures, making the molecules more robust and predictable to work with. If successful, the collaboration will embed these formulation techniques directly into Immunocore’s drug development pipeline. That could accelerate the path from laboratory discovery to clinical trials for future ImmTAX candidates, and reduce the risk of late-stage manufacturing failures. For patients, the practical consequence is simpler: a drug that works as intended, reaches the clinic faster, and can be stored and delivered reliably. The work is applied, not fundamental—it targets a specific industrial bottleneck in the production of a specific class of biologic drugs.