EmergexPanels Aagreement with ATCCfor Aadvance Sstudies of his Yesyellow Falready Booster Vaccinated Candidate
Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom,7 April 2022 – Emergex Vaccines Holding Limited (“Emergex” or the “Company”), a company tackling the world’s top infectious disease threats through the development of fully synthetic, adaptive CD8+ T-cell vaccines, today announces that it has entered into an agreement with the ATCC to advance the preclinical development of its Yellow Fever Booster Program. The ATCC is a nonprofit organization that collects, stores, and distributes standard reference microorganisms, cell lines, and other materials for research and development.
In August 2020, Emergex researchers reported the first analysis of T cell epitopes produced by an existing commercial live attenuated yellow fever 17D (YF17D) vaccine. Emergex now plans to perform a comparative study using wild-type yellow fever virus: these comparative studies of CD8+ class I T-cell epitopes derived from live attenuated and wild-type viruses will further support the development of the vaccine candidate Emergex Yellow Fever T-Cell Booster.
Agreement with ATCC expected to allow Emergex to safely conduct studies with wild-type yellow fever virus, classified as a biosafety level 3 pathogen [BS3], to advance the development of its T-Cell booster vaccine candidate. ATCC will oversee and perform viral infection models – infecting human cell lines with wild-type yellow fever virus. Emergex will then perform immunoproteomic analyzes of viral peptides presented to MHC class I on infected cell surfaces to confirm the expression library of viral epitope peptides presented to CD8+ T cells. The expected results, together with previous data derived from the live attenuated virus, should enable the development of an effective next-generation yellow fever vaccine capable of meeting a growing global demand for vaccines.
Professor Thomas Rademacher, vso-Funder and CEO of Emergex Vaccines commented : “Emergex is doingprogress in advance oneJ-VSto oneAadaptive recall vaccine candidateand thanks to its confirmatory studies on the ligandome using the wild type Yesyellow Fnever virus May be a promising solutionfor continuous protection as this infectious disease continues to reappear and spread around the world. While the current FJThe 17D vaccine is considered effective, the use of vaccination as primary protection against the disease on meyou clean East potentially unsustainable in the long-termm. This conclusion East important because many individual in endemic regions with Yesyellow Feach vaccination may require a booster to ensure continued protection, So exacerbating existing vaccine shortages.Investment in the next generation Yesyellow Falways primary vaccines and boosters EastSo critical for provide an additional supply of treatments in order to meet growing global demand and to minimize the side effects of YF17D.”
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| For more information, please contact: | |
| Emergex | Consilium Strategic Communications |
| Storme Moore-Thornicroft, Executive Director
Telephone: +44 (0) 1235 527589 Email: smt@emergexvaccines.com Robin Cohen, Commercial Director Telephone: +44 (0) 1235 527589 Email: rc@emergexvaccines.com |
Chris Gardner/Ashley Tapp/Giulia Lasagni
Telephone: +44 (0)20 3709 5700 Email: Emergex@consilium-comms.com |
About Emergex
Emergex, a private clinical-stage biotechnology company headquartered in Abingdon, UK, with an operating subsidiary in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, USA, is pioneering the development of adaptive 100% T-cell vaccines synthetics that harness the body’s natural T cells. immune response to destroy cells infected with pathogens to protect against some of the world’s most pressing health threats.
Emergex has a growing portfolio of adaptive CD8+ T-Cell vaccines and innovative booster vaccine candidates that have the potential to provide rapid, broad (mutation-independent), and long-lasting immunity to reduce severe disease associated with infectious diseases. Emergex has a number of phase I clinical trials underway, with the most advanced programs in development being dengue fever (which can also modify disease for other members of the Flaviviridae family of viruses, such as Zika and yellow fever), as well as the coronavirus. Other programs in development include vaccine candidates for universal (pandemic) influenza, chikungunya, and a yellow fever booster vaccine.
Emergex’s T-Cell Adaptive vaccine candidates combine two proprietary technologies, [i] an empirically determined library of pathogen-derived protein fragments expressed on the surface of pathogen-infected cells (forming the MHC class I “ligandoma” expression library), and [ii] a passivated gold nanoparticle carrier system designed to deliver the synthetic peptides to the skin’s resident immune system (in combination with nociception) via microneedles to trigger a robust adaptive response from resident CD8 T cells. With potential stability at room temperature, the vaccine candidates, as expected, reduce the burden and logistics of vaccine administration.
To learn more, visit www.emergexvaccines.com.
Visit our LinkedIn page or our Twitter account for live updates.
About the ATCC
The ATCC is one of the world’s leading resource and standards organizations for biological materials and information and the leading developer and provider of authenticated cell lines and microorganisms. With a history of scientific advancements spanning nearly a century, ATCC offers an unparalleled combination of being the world’s largest and most diverse collection of biological research solutions and a mission-focused trusted partner that supports and encourages scientific collaboration. ATCC’s products, services and people provide the scientific community with credible biologics and advanced model systems that support complex research in a variety of innovative applications resulting in incredible achievements in basic science, discovery medicine, translational medicine and public health. ATCC is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Manassas, Virginia, and a research and development innovation center in Gaithersburg, Maryland. To learn more, visit atcc.org.
On Yesyellow Falready:
Yellow fever is a serious, life-threatening, mosquito-borne disease endemic to tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Central America, and South America. There are 47 countries at risk in these regions and a growing prevalence of reported cases in countries once considered non-endemic, raising concerns about future outbreaks.1 Despite the availability of an approved vaccine that has been used since the 1930s, yellow fever continues to be a significant public health threat and requires preparation for future outbreaks and international spread as global travel accelerates and that global warming intensifies the habitat of pathogen-carrying mosquitoes.
Recent outbreaks in major cities have led to split-dosing initiatives in an effort to expand vaccine access and supply when mass vaccination campaigns are needed.2 The need to address the increased threat of yellow fever epidemics with global spread has been recognized by WHO in its establishment of the Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemics (“EYE”) initiative.3
The live attenuated YF17D vaccine is produced exclusively from embryonic chicken eggs with safety testing on non-human primates, in accordance with WHO safety requirements, contributing to a limited worldwide production of YF17D vaccine (therefore produced by only 4 certified manufacturers).
Additionally, YF17D comes with the added challenge of rare, but serious adverse events, including yellow fever vaccine-associated neurotropic disease (YEL-AND) and associated viscerotropic disease (YEL-AVD) in certain susceptible populations. .4 The vaccine is contraindicated in at-risk populations due to its live attenuated nature.
1https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/yellow-fever
2https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8247/14/9/891/htm
3https://www.who.int/initiatives/eye-strategy
4https://academic.oup.com/jtm/article/27/7/taaa172/5910428?login=true
