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OSE Immunotherapeutics signs a license option agreement with Servier to develop and commercialize the product Effi-7

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Technology transfer moves more than manufacturing instructions. It moves process knowledge, supplier dependencies, labeling requirements, packaging specifications, and the evidence needed to demonstrate control. For medical device manufacturers, including those supporting drug-device combination products, these interfaces can become recurring sources of compliance gaps during site transitions, acquisitions, and remediation. The central problem is often not a missing procedure. It is a quality system that allows connected activities to change independently. A label revision may be approved while packaging artwork, supplier instructions, or production-system data still reflect an obsolete version. Staying inspection-ready requires manufacturers to manage these dependencies as one controlled system. 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Transitions expose unresolved weaknesses Acquisitions and site transfers can introduce conflicting procedures, incomplete knowledge transfer, or different assumptions about validated processes. Regulatory changes add further demands. When these events coincide with CAPA or change-control backlogs, teams may prioritize administrative closure over risk reduction. Without a coordinated impact assessment, local fixes can create new gaps downstream. Establish the Regulatory Baseline Inspection readiness starts with knowing which requirements apply to the product, activity, and market. Pharmaceutical, device, and combination-product obligations are not interchangeable; transfer planning should identify the applicable requirements rather than assume one quality framework covers every operation. 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How to Identify the Real Gaps Begin with a cross-functional assessment that follows actual product and information flows. Select representative transfers, label changes, supplier changes, and CAPAs, then trace each from initiation through implementation and effectiveness review. Map dependencies: Identify affected specifications, suppliers, packaging components, systems, validation activities, and training. Compare records with practice: Check whether approved procedures match what operators and reviewers actually do. Test traceability: Follow a requirement through technical documentation, labeling, production instructions, and release evidence. Examine recurrence: Look for repeated deviations, reopened actions, overdue changes, and findings shared across sites. Assess capacity: Determine whether qualified owners have enough time and authority to complete corrective work. Prioritize gaps by potential patient or user harm, regulatory impact, likelihood of recurrence, and detectability. Document the rationale; an old overdue item is not automatically more important than a newly identified high-risk weakness. Align Quality, Labeling, Packaging, and Change Control Create a coordinated remediation plan with one accountable owner for each action, named contributors, acceptance criteria, and required evidence. Separate immediate containment from systemic correction. Containment might prevent obsolete labels from being issued; correction might redesign approval and implementation controls so obsolete versions cannot return. Use change control as the integration point. Before approval, evaluate effects on regulatory submissions or notifications, technical documentation, supplier controls, packaging performance, validation, electronic master data, inventory, and training. Record both identified impacts and justified decisions that particular activities are unaffected. During technology transfer, define readiness gates before production or release responsibilities move. These should address the transfer of process knowledge, acceptance criteria, receiving-site capability, required qualification or validation, approved documents, and personnel competence. The appropriate evidence depends on the product and process; a generic checklist cannot replace a documented assessment. Finally, verify implementation where the work happens. Confirm that current instructions are available, suppliers received approved requirements, systems contain correct versions, and affected personnel can perform their tasks. A signed approval is not evidence that every downstream change took effect. Mistakes That Undermine Inspection Readiness Closing CAPAs on task completion alone: Effectiveness checks should test whether the underlying failure has been controlled. Updating labels in isolation: Assess packaging, supplier, system, documentation, and inventory consequences. Counting closures instead of evidence: Dashboards need defensible records behind their status indicators. ...

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OSE Immunotherapeutics SA announced that the company has entered into a worldwide license option agreement with Servier, an independent international pharmaceutical company, for the development and commercialization of OSE Immunotherapeutics’ Effi-7, an antagonist of the interleukin-7 receptor.

Under the terms of the agreement, OSE Immunotherapeutics grants Servier a license option on the exclusive worldwide rights for the development and commercialization of its product Effi-7. OSE Immunotherapeutics is eligible to receive up to €272 million including an upfront payment of €10.25 million and additional payments of €30 million upon the exercise of a two-steps option license. These steps will enable the development of Effi-7 up to the completion of a phase 2 clinical trial planned in ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune bowel disease. Further payments will be linked to the achievement of clinical development and registration in multiple indications, as well as sales milestones with double-digit royalties on sales. 

Effi-7 is a monoclonal immunomodulatory antibody targeting the alpha chain of the interleukin-7 receptor (IL-7R-alpha or CD127 receptor). Effi-7 has an innovative mechanism of action: it blocks both the IL-7 and the internalization of the receptor, thus inducing a powerful antagonist effect on the pathogenic T lymphocytes involved in autoimmune diseases. This mechanism has been confirmed recently through multiple in vitro studies.

Currently in preclinical stage for ulcerative colitis, the development of Effi-7 will also be pursued until the clinical phase 2 as part of the EFFIMab consortium, led by OSE Immunotherapeutics and including the University Hospital of Nantes and the company PxTherapeutics. This development is co-financed by Bpifrance for €9.1 million (on a total amount of €20 million). Servier will take further development in charge after this phase 2.

Dominique Costantini, Chief Executive Officer at OSE Immunotherapeutics, comments: “We are very pleased to enter into this collaboration with Servier, which will allow the availability of new therapeutic options for patients suffering from invalidating autoimmune pathologies. This agreement validates the strong potential and the attractiveness of our breakthrough immunotherapies, developed by a leading team that I would like to thank warmly. We are looking forward to working with the Servier R&D team to make this global partnership a success”.

In parallel, Servier plans to start preclinical studies in the Sjögren syndrome. This disease, which provokes dryness of salivary and lacrimal glands, is the second most frequent auto-immune disease, with an incidence of 0.6 for 1,000 adults. A third of the patients have a systemic syndrome and the pathology leads to an increased risk of B lymphoma and pulmonary fibrosis (by lymphocyte infiltration). Sjödren syndrome has no curative treatment as of today. This parallel approach will allow, in line with Servier’s strategy, to speed up the development of promising drugs for diseases with strong unmet medical needs.

Patricia Belissa-Mathiot, Director of the R&D department for immune-inflammatory diseases at Servier, concludes: “This partnership shows our willingness to focus our research on pathologies with very strong medical needs and to bring innovative therapeutic solutions to patients suffering from auto-inflammatory diseases. It demonstrates our commitment for research and the importance of partnerships with biotech companies”.More information: http://ose-immuno.com

Contacts
OSE Immunotherapeutics 
Sylvie Détry
sylvie.detry@ose-immuno.com
+33 143 297 857

Contacts media:
Alize RP
Florence Portejoie & Caroline Carmagnol
oseimmuno@alizerp.com
+33 647 389 004

Servier’s contact
Servier external communication
Karine Bousseau
media@servier.com
+33 155 726 037

ABOUT SERVIER
Servier is an international pharmaceutical company governed by a non-profit Foundation and headquartered in France. With a strong international presence in 148 countries and a turnover of 4 billion euro in 2016, Servier employs over 21,000 people worldwide. Corporate growth is driven by Servier’s constant search for innovation in five areas of excellence: cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, immune-inflammatory diseases and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as by its activities in high quality generic drugs. Being completely independent, the Group reinvests 25% of Servier’s products turnover in Research and Development, and all its profits in its growth.More information is available at: www.servier.com

 

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