CaPtivate Pharmaceuticals LLC, a Pennsylvania-based biotechnology company, announced it has entered into a License Agreement with Immunotope Inc., another Pennsylvania-based biotechnology company developing immunotherapy products for the treatment and prevention of viral infections and cancer.
Immunotope will have a non-exclusive worldwide license of CaPtivate’s CaP nano particle (CaPNP) technology for the development and commercialization of T-cell vaccines.
CaPNP technology has been in development as a novel vaccine adjuvant for injection or needle-free administration and for drug delivery via mucosal routes. These particles have shown excellent absorption capacity for bioactive molecules and are stable for years in aqueous suspension, as gel, or as spray-dried powder.
Research conducted in animal models has shown that CaP is safe for administration orally, into muscles, under the skin, and via inhalation into the lungs. Furthermore, CAP technology has also been proven safe in humans in a Phase I safety and toxicity study.
The first T-cell vaccine candidate will combine CaPtivate’s CaPNP technology with Immunotope’s antigenic epitopes, and will be a fully synthetic, multi-epitope, universal vaccine for dengue virus infections. However, the potential to use this vaccine towards cancer immunotherapy is being explored by Immunotope, including breast, colon, prostate, ovarian, pancreatic and lung cancer vaccines.
The CaP nanoparticle-based multi epitope dengue vaccine formulation is currently in clinical trials and has already been demonstrated to induce dengue virus specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte activation, both in vitro and in vivo.
“This agreement is a forward step to establish a long-term strategic partnership between CaPtivate Pharmaceuticals and Immunotope to develop novel vaccines against unmet medical needs through combining our companies’ unique technologies. The goal is to develope safe and effective novel vaccine formulations to stimulate robust, long-lasting immunity that protects against current as well as future exposures to pathogens”, Dr. Tulin Morcol, President of CaPtivate Pharmaceuticals said in a PR Newswire press release.
An estimated 300 million people are infected every year with Dengue Fever and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, making them serious global health problems that lack effective vaccines able to stimulate the patient’s immune system.
“Live attenuated and subunit vaccine candidates induce primarily an antibody response to the virus and provide only partial, serotype specific protection against infection. These antibodies also place vaccines at significant risk of contracting the more serious Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever upon re-infection with a different DV serotype” Dr. Ramila Philip, Chief Scientific Officer of Immunotope concluded in the press release.
