Biopharma
Kahimmune Therapeutics signs agreement for scientific collaboration with Gustave Roussy
Collaboration to accelerate mRNA neoantigen therapy development for colorectal and pancreatic cancers using advanced immunology and dark genome insights
- By IPP Bureau
| April 29, 2026
French biotechnology company, Kahimmune Therapeutics, has signed a scientific collaboration agreement with Gustave Roussy, the leading European center in oncology.
Co-founded by Gustave Roussy Transfert, the Gustave Roussy subsidiary responsible for promoting projects and companies from its scientific and medical community, Kahimmune develops shared mRNA companion neoantigen therapies integrating exclusive new neoantigens. These therapies are designed for use in combination with existing cancer treatments to optimize them, making the therapies safer and more effective.
Under this agreement, Kahimmune gains access to patients’ biological samples to generate preclinical data aimed at selecting the antigens that will form its first therapeutic candidate, KAH-001, by mid-2027. This candidate will target colorectal and pancreatic cancers. The company can then start preclinical development and CMC activities to obtain a clinical mRNA candidate using lipid-based nanoparticles (mRNA-LNP), which will be ready to enter regulatory preclinical development by mid-2029.
Kahimmune has received €90,000 ($105K) in funding from France 2030 and Bpifrance for its collaboration on this research project, and a seed funding loan worth €100,000 ($117K) to develop its proprietary platform, KahinomicsTM. This innovative platform draws on the latest discoveries in immunology relating to the dark genome, created using the non-coding RNAs that represent 98% of our DNA.
“We are very happy with this first collaboration with Gustave Roussy, a key player in cancer research, that has supported us since Kahimmune’s creation. This is a crucial step in selecting our first therapeutic candidate before initiating preclinical development,”explained Philippe Villain-Guillot, Kahimmune founder and CEO. “We also thank France 2030 and Bpifrance for their financial support. A seed funding round is underway, and we are continuing to liaise with potential clinical and academic partners.”
“With this agreement, Gustave Roussy once more demonstrates its capacity to collaborate with highly innovative biotech start-ups to enable them to progress their assets to the preclinical stage,” added Christophe Javaud, executive director at Gustave Roussy Transfert. “Furthermore, Kahimmune is one of five businesses that have recently joined the BOOST program run by the Paris-Saclay Cancer Cluster, one of our partners.”
