Tevogen Bio will broaden an existing partnership with Microsoft to further develop its artificial intelligence (AI) based tools and its predictive, precision T cell target identification technology PredicTcell.
The NJ-based biotech is already working with Microsoft, as it joined the Microsoft for Startups program in October last year to help accelerate the development of its AI technology.
Tevogen Bio was founded in 2020 by current CEO Ryan Saadi, who worked in the biotech and pharma industry for many years at companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi before founding the company.
The company is focused on developing T-cell immunotherapies for the treatment of infectious diseases, cancers, and neurological disorders. It is developing technology that uses CD8+ cytotoxic T cells to create “off-the-shelf” precision immunotherapies that are more affordable and accessible than currently available options.
For example, its lead therapy, TVGN 489 is in clinical trials to treat COVID-19 in high-risk patients as well as long COVID. It is an investigational allogeneic SARS-CoV-2 specific CD8+ T lymphocyte immunotherapy and has shown good results in Phase I trials to date.
Notably, TVGN 489 advanced from discovery to clinical testing within 18 months of the company being founded, which is significantly faster than average.
The most recent collaboration will allow Tevogen to use the power of Microsoft’s AI technology to build on its successes to date and use machine learning to quickly and accurately identify new treatment targets.
Tevogen and Microsoft also plan to jointly develop new algorithms to better understand the interactions between human leukocyte antigens (HLA) and T cells to broaden understanding of the immune system and how it responds to disease or infection to help open up new treatment pathways.
“As we expand our AI efforts, this broader relationship with Microsoft represents a key milestone in our ongoing journey to revolutionize immunotherapy,” said Mittul Mehta, CIO of Tevogen Bio and head of Tevogen.AI., in a press release.
“Through deeper collaboration with Microsoft domain experts, we will further harness the power of AI to bring more precise and personalized treatments to patients at an accelerated pace.”
A new target that Tevogen is hoping to develop further with help from Microsoft is TVGN 920, Tevogen’s first oncology product candidate, which aims to target the human papillomavirus.
