Sep 16 2014
CaPtivate Pharmaceuticals LLC, a Pennsylvania-based biotechnology company developing calcium phosphate (CaP)-based nanoparticle drug and vaccine delivery technologies, announced today that the company has entered a License Agreement with Immunotope Inc., another Pennsylvania-based biotechnology company developing immunotherapy products for the treatment and prevention of viral infections and cancer.
Under the terms of the agreement, Immunotope is granted a non-exclusive world-wide license of CaPtivate's CaP nanoparticle (CaPNP) technology for development and commercialization of T-cell vaccines. The first T-cell vaccine candidate that combines CaPtivate's CaPNP technology with Immunotope's antigenic epitopes that were identified by its immunoproteomics platform technology is a fully synthetic, multi-epitope, universal vaccine for dengue virus (DV) infections. The ability of CaP nanoparticle-based multi epitope dengue vaccine formulation, which is currently in preclinical development stage, has been demonstrated to induce dengue virus specific CTL activation, 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" said Dr. Tulin Morcol, President of CaPtivate Pharmaceuticals.
Dengue Fever (DF) and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) are significant global public health problems with an estimated 300 million people infected each year. Effective vaccines that stimulate both antibody and T cell mediated immunity are needed to manage the disease and its potentially severe complications. "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 (DHF) upon re-infection with a different DV serotype" explained Dr. Ramila Philip, Chief Scientific Officer of Immunotope.
Source: http://www.captivatepharma.com/