Tokyo (SCCIJ) – NEC OncoImmunity (Japan) has acquired certain novel cancer treatment assets from the Swiss biotech company Vaximm. Its therapy stimulates white blood cells to destroy cancer tissue. The Japanese subsidiary of the IT giant NEC plans to initiate the first clinical trial already this year. The deal highlights the cutting-edge biotechnology industry of Switzerland.
Vaximm’s vaccine technology personalizes T-cells to attack cancer tissue (© Zappys Technology Solutions via flickr).
AI-driven development
The agreement covers Vaximm’s neo-antigen vaccine-related patents, the licenses for the requisite manufacturing patents, and several existing contracts with key collaborators and partners.
“We have acquired the rights to an attractive delivery platform with broad therapeutic potential in oncology and other areas,” said Richard Stratford, CEO of NEC OncoImmunity. The transaction would expand NEC’s neoantigen drug development pipeline.
Heinz Lubenau, CEO and Co-founder of Vaximm, stated, “NEC OncoImmunity is the ideal company to take our novel neoantigen programs through development and hopefully to the market to help patients.”
Personalized vaccines
Vaximm is developing oral T-cell immunotherapies for cancer patients. The technology modifies a safe bacterial vaccine strain to stimulate patients’ cytotoxic T-cells to target a wide range of cancer-related antigens. The platform allows for fast and scalable manufacturing of personalized T-cell cancer vaccines. Hence, it may overcome key challenges faced by many other approaches.
The privately held company has a pipeline of complementary development candidates targeting different tumor structures. One lead product candidate activates killer cells targeting tumor-specific vasculature and certain immune-suppressive cells, thereby increasing immune cell infiltration in solid tumors. This candidate is currently in clinical development for several tumor types, including brain cancer.
The two companies had started their collaboration in 2019 with a strategic clinical trial. NEC also made an equity investment to finance the development of novel neoantigen cancer vaccines. The Japanese company contributed its artificial intelligence technology to the cooperation. This project has received clinical trial approval in Europe.
Young companies
Vaximm headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, was formed in 2008 as a joint venture of BB Biotech Ventures and the German pharmaceutical maker Merck. A wholly-owned subsidiary in Mannheim is responsible for the development activities. Among the investors are BB Biotech Ventures, BCM Europe, BioMedPartners, CMS, M Ventures, NEC, and CSV as well as Sunstone Life Science Ventures.
NEC OncoImmunity, an AI-driven biotechnology company from Oslo, Norway, closed its first financing round in early 2016. Its proprietary machine learning-based software addresses the key knowledge gaps in the prediction of bona fide immunogenic neoantigens for personalized cancer immunotherapy, in addition to infectious disease vaccines. The AI technology can be used to identify optimal neoantigen targets for truly personalized cancer vaccines and cell therapies.
Text: SCCIJ based on material of NEC/Vaximm; Picture: Zappys Technology Solutions/flickr CC BY 2.0)
