MBF Therapeutics Collaborates with Life Science Research Leaders to Develop a Next Generation Immunotherapeutic Vaccine for SARS CoV-2
July 23, 2020 – Ambler, PA – MBF Therapeutics, a leader in the development of DNA-based immunotherapeutic checkpoint inhibitor vaccines, formed a collaboration of life science industry experts for the advancement of the next-generation SARS CoV-2 vaccine toward an investigational new drug (IND).
The collaboration will advance MBF Therapeutics’ SARS CoV-2 vaccine candidate – identified as COVE-001. The team and responsibilities include:
- MRIGlobal – pre-clinical testing
- Rymedi - provision of integrated data and diagnostics platform
- SSI Strategy – optimized clinical development planning; project management of the IND process
- Aldevron– DNA vaccine formulation; scale-up and manufacturing.
MBF Therapeutics was the first company to develop an animal health vaccine using gene-based checkpoint inhibitors.
"Our goal is a better long-term solution to the current global pandemic. And that’s a next-generation vaccine that effectively prevents the spread of SARSCoV-2," said Thomas Tillett, Chief Executive Officer, MBF Therapeutics.
“Translating our immunotherapeutic checkpoint inhibitor vaccines in animal health to usage within human health is a company goal." He adds, "This collaboration is a unique opportunity to leverage MBF Therapeutics’ proprietary immunotherapy platform and delivery system to address our current pandemic."
MBF Therapeutics Takes a Novel Approach to Develop a Vaccine for SARSCoV-2 MBF Therapeutics’ COVE-001 vaccine development strategy focuses on creating DNA-based vaccines that elicit potent T-cell responses to a multiplicity of conserved antigens to achieve broad-spectrum protection. MBF Therapeutics’ vaccine platform technology comprises a proprietary combination of three components:
- Delivery component – CaptaVax™, a delivery system based on functionalized calcium phosphate nanoparticles size-optimized for uptake by naive innate antigen presentation cells to effectively stimulate strong innate trained immunity.
- Immunomodulator component – Stimulatory immunomodulators that elicit potent antigen-specific antibodies and memory T cells
- Antigen component – Clinically relevant, protective T-cell antigens.
Leveraging MBF Therapeutics’ next-generation T-cell vaccine platform, there are three major goals of the collaboration with MRIGlobal, Rymedi, SSI Strategy, and Aldevron:
- To develop a SARSCoV-2 vaccine that is delivered intranasally—the site of viral entry and host cell invasion. The adjuvant that will be used, CaptaVax™, is a safe, biocompatible calcium phosphate nanoparticle that elicits a strong immune response yet reduces the severity of adverse reactions to infection in susceptible individuals, such as pneumonia and cytokine storms.
- To use gene-based immunomodulators to boost and sustain T-cell memory responses, keeping in mind that T-cell immunity is much longer lived than B-cell immunity and helping to insure a strong immune response in all patients.
- To create a “universal” SARS vaccine by using multiple antigens from the core-conserved regions of the SARSCoV-2 virus, which will provide a vaccine that could potentially work against future mutations of the COVID-19 virus and, thus, help prevent loss of vaccine effectiveness over time.
“MBF Therapeutics formed this collaboration to apply recent immunotherapeutic advances to address the challenging global disease threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” says MBF Therapeutics’ Chief Medical Officer Carl Johnson, DVM. “The urgent need for a different approach to SARS CoV-2 prevention is clear. It is a driving force for our team of collaborators to explore novel strategies, for which MBF Therapeutics’ platform technology has the potential to transform vaccine design, delivery and manufacture in the near future.”