Vaccinex Announces Signing of Two Multi-Project Deals With Leading Pharmaceutical Companies
Vaccinex, Inc. recently announced the signing of multi-project deals with two undisclosed prominent pharmaceutical companies. The collaborations will focus on using ActivMAb, Vaccinex’s antibody discovery and novel viral display platform, for antibody discovery against complex antigens such as GPCRs and ion channels. Financial terms of the deals are undisclosed.
“Our ActivMAb platform has delivered numerous promising antibody-based solutions for complex therapeutic targets, both for our own R&D efforts and those of our partners,” said Ernest Smith, Chief Scientific Officer of Vaccinex. “These two collaboration agreements with prominent pharmaceutical companies underscore ActivMAb’s unique ability to discover promising antibodies against challenging molecules with tangible R&D value. We look forward to working closely with our partners to develop potential treatments specific for such previously hard to drug targets.”
ActivMAb was developed by Vaccinex and is a proprietary mammalian cell-based antibody discovery platform. The technology has multiple applications, including discovery of antibodies specific for complex membrane antigens, discovery of antibodies with optimized developability, and protein optimization for expression and activity. Its novel capabilities enable selection of unique antibody drugs against difficult high-value targets, including multi-pass membrane proteins against which small molecule drugs have demonstrated low efficacy or high toxicity.
Vaccinex, Inc. is pioneering a differentiated approach to treating neurodegenerative disease through the inhibition of semaphorin 4D (SEMA4D), a key driver of neuroinflammation. The company’s lead drug candidate, pepinemab, blocks SEMA4D and has potential as a disease-modifying treatment for Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Beyond neurology, Vaccinex believes that, in combination with checkpoint inhibitors, pepinemab has potential to increase objective responses in oncology. The company additionally intends to leverage its proprietary drug discovery platform, ActivMAb, to create opportunities for future pipeline expansion and strategic collaborations.
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