Heat Biologics Unveils a Novel Cellular Vaccine Platform Targeting Known & Unknown Emerging Biological Threats

Heat Biologics, Inc. recently unveiled its new RapidVax cellular vaccine platform at the 2021 World Antiviral Congress. RapidVax is designed as a rapid programmable vaccine to target a comprehensive range of emerging biological threats. Heat showcased a poster presentation highlighting RapidVax at the World Vaccine & Immunotherapy Congress West Coast and World Antiviral Congress, November 30 to December 2, 2021.

RapidVax is designed to enable an accelerated response to a wide variety of infectious agents by providing a flexible “plug and play” vaccine platform that can be stockpiled in advance, and then rapidly customized, manufactured, and deployed to address imminent and future biological threats. This platform has the potential to shorten the timelines needed to develop and test novel vaccines against emerging infectious agents.

David Lasseter, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction and a member of Heat’s Biothreat Advisory Board, said “Neutralizing the threat of biological weapons or emerging infectious diseases has been elusive due to the number of potential agents and the timeline required to develop viable vaccines. The current COVID-19 pandemic has underscored societal risks and vulnerabilities to battle biological threats, whether by an intentional attack, accidental release, or naturally occurring infectious disease. RapidVax aims to provide a proven, safe, vaccine strategy that can be quickly engineered and adapted to address emerging biological threats.”

RapidVax leverages the immune-activating properties of heat shock protein gp96, a danger-signal associated protein. This protein normally chaperones activation peptides to antigen-presenting cells under cellular stress. These peptide-gp96 complexes then stimulate antigen cross-presentation, leading to a broad array of innate and adaptive immune responses to confer cellular and humoral immunity against a wide range of pathogens. RapidVax also co-expresses a potent T-cell costimulatory molecule, OX40L, which contributes to the generation of long-lasting T-cell memory and B-cell neutralizing antibody production via the development of T follicular helper cells upon enhanced stimulation of professional antigen-presenting cells.

Jeff Wolf, Chief Executive Officer of Heat, said “We are excited to unveil RapidVax, a potentially disruptive approach that leverages our vast experience developing our gp96 platform in both cancer and infectious disease. Heat has treated over 250 patients using its gp96 platform in multiple oncology clinical trials. Furthermore, our gp96-based cellular vaccines demonstrated prophylactic protection in mice and primate models against a range of infectious threat agents, including malaria, HIV/SIV, Zika and SARS-CoV-2 in multiple DOD and NIH-funded studies. The emergence of COVID-19 variants, such as Omicron, further highlights the urgent need for a novel cellular vaccine platform designed to provide a rapid, safe, and effective response to biological threats. We also look forward to leveraging the relationships, experience, and knowledge across our Biothreat Advisory Board as we advance the RapidVax platform.”

Heat Biologics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing first-in-class therapies to modulate the immune system. Heat’s gp96 platform is designed to activate immune responses against cancer or infectious diseases. The Company has multiple product candidates in development leveraging the gp96 platform, including HS-110, which has completed enrollment in a Phase 2 trial, various infectious disease/biological threat programs in preclinical development and a pipeline of proprietary immunomodulatory antibodies and cell-based therapies, including PTX-35 and HS-130 in Phase 1 clinical trials. For more information, visit www.heatbio.com.