German family-owned drug major Boehringer Ingelheim and Cue Biopharma (Nasdaq: CUE) have announced a strategic research collaboration and license agreement to develop and commercialize Cue Biopharma’s CUE-501 product candidate, a differentiated B cell depletion therapy for autoimmune diseases.

Boston, USA-based Cue Biopharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a novel class of therapeutic biologics to selectively engage and modulate disease-specific T cells for the potential treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The company’s shares closed up 3.3% at $0.79 on Monday, but fell back 10.8% to $0.71 in after-hours trading.

Cue Biopharma’s pre-clinical candidate molecule binds to a B cell specific membrane protein and in parallel selectively engages virus-specific memory killer T cells. This enables it to selectively deplete B cells and dampen autoimmune and inflammatory processes, potentially offering improved benefit and safety versus other therapeutic approaches targeting B cells.