Ben Holgate meets the leader of a biotech firm with cutting edge cancer treatments

Abingdon-based biotechnology firm Immunocore is aiming to make its radical cancer treatment drugs commercially available to patients in the next four years, said the new chief executive officer, Eliot Forster.

Dr Forster, who joined the company in January, said: “I would anticipate that, within the next three or four years, we would be selling our lead molecule to patients.”

Other drugs in development could be offered to the public in four to six years, he added.

Dr Forster has overseen an evolution of Immunocore’s business strategy in the eight months since he took over from the founding CEO, James Noble, who stood down to run sister company Adaptimmune.

He said his “extensive” interview process with chairman Jonathan Knowles, board members and executives that started in August 2014, enabled them to identify key priorities.

“We collectively sat down and said: ‘What do we want to achieve?’ There was a significant ambition to build a world-leading biotech.”

At the top of the list is to market the company’s most advanced drug, IMCgp100, which is in the middle of its development cycle.

He said the drug has been used to treat patients with skin cancer, or melanoma, and a type of melanoma that manifests as eye cancer, and that it might also be suitable to treat brain and soft-tissue cancers.

Immunocore has also signed two new deals to use IMCgp100 with pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and MedImmune, the research and development arm of AstraZeneca.

Another priority is to “advance more drugs that we wholly own”. This includes drugs in the pipeline that can be used to treat solid tumour types, such as lung, prostate and breast cancers.

A third priority is to ensure the company has the staff and infrastructure to support current growth.

Although Immunocore employs 160 staff, Dr Forster expects to take on another 50 or 60 in the next 18 months. About 90 per cent are scientists, and the vast majority have at least a PhD.

However, he said that while Immunocore “has expanded rapidly”, he intends to lessen the rate of growth in order to control it.

Part of the problem is that it takes about six months for a new scientist to learn the company’s techniques. In addition, the productivity of the new hire’s trainer will be impacted during the induction. “I think the rate of growth will be slowed,” he said.

In July, Immunocore completed a £205m private financing that will fund the acceleration of its pipeline of biological drugs.

This attracted new investors, including Eli Lilly, global fund manager giant Fidelity and Oxford fund manager Woodford Investment Management.

Dr Forster said the new shareholders were attracted to several factors: Immunocore’s aim to be a leading biotech; laboratory and patient data released over the past year that improved investors’ understanding of immune oncology; and the uniqueness of the company’s cancer treatment.

“Our approach is not only unique for now, but we also have a wide potential across different cancers,” he said.

Conventional cancer treatments involve surgery (cutting out the tumour), chemotherapy (poisoning) or radiotherapy (burning).

Immunocore’s approach, however, focuses on the body’s own immune system to fight cancer cells.

The company’s method centres on the ability of T-cells to seek out and destroy cancer cells. Yet T-cells are not good at identifying what is a cancer cell and what is a healthy cell.

Immunocore has developed small protein molecules, called ImmTACs, which stick to both cancer cells and T-cells, leaving the healthy cells untouched.

Dr Forster, who lives near Wallingford, said: “I tend to be on the cautious side with respect to the ‘c’ word, cure. Cancer is a disease that constantly evolves [in the patient].”

He added: “We need to recognise we are dealing with a complex enemy. I’m optimistic that within our lifetime we will see most cancers turned into chronic, managed diseases.”

The CEO said he was “excited” about being approached to join Immunocore because of its particular kind of cancer immunotherapy.

“It’s one of the coolest companies on the planet,” he said.

He added: “I’ve been amazed by the quality of the scientists. There is a real passion and depth.”

This is the 49-year-old’s third chief executive job. He was in Canterbury as CEO of UK dermatology company Creabilis, and before that he lived in Boston while running US biotech Solace Pharmaceuticals.

He has also worked at Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline.