PLYMOUTH—Esperovax, a Plymouth-based developer of oral vaccines, announced a new, exclusive licensing agreement with Innovation Partners at the University of Michigan to produce vaccines and therapeutics using a novel yeast-based manufacturing method.
This new manufacturing technology will accelerate current programs to the clinic by allowing for a continuous purification process. In turn, such vaccines can be purified and produced with higher yields at optimal cost.
“Yeast-based oral vaccine using virus-like particles has recently demonstrated clinical safety and immunological response that serve as a proof-of-concept for the oral administration of VLP-based vaccines,” said David O’Hagan, Esperovax CEO. “The IP we have in-licensed from one of the world’s leading research institutions allows us to produce and purify the VLPs with an optimized strategy, paving the way for higher yields. With this new approach, we aim to fine-tune our platform and manufacture vaccines and therapeutics with superior efficacy on a global scale.”
The signing of this agreement also provides the University of Michigan the right to invest in Esperovax, including in the company’s currently planned capital raise, as well as in future rounds.
Esperovax was founded in 2019 to advance development of its Egress RD oral mRNA platform, a technology for delivering mRNA vaccines to the abundant population of immune cells in the gastrointestinal tract via a small oral capsule. The company’s proprietary platform enables a broad suite of oral vaccines and therapeutics that are safe, elicit robust immunity, remain stable at room temperature and can be produced at markedly lower cost than traditional vaccines.
Esperovax has three pending patents.
For more information, visit: https://esperovax.com/