NEC Acquires VAXIMM’s Neoantigen Vaccine Development Assets

Under the agreement, NOI will acquire VAXIMM’s neoantigen vaccine-related patents, license the requisite manufacturing patents, and will take over several existing contracts with key collaborators and partners. Financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed. In 2019, the companies entered into a strategic clinical trial collaboration agreement and an equity investment agreement to develop novel personalized neoantigen cancer vaccines. 

VAXIMM retains rights to its first-in-class oral T-cell activation platform technology and all other product candidates, including lead product VXM01, which is being developed for the treatment of glioblastoma. VXM01 is currently in clinical development for several tumor types, including brain cancer.

Thomas D. Szucs, MD, Chairman of the Board of VAXIMM, said, “I am excited to see the progress that has been made in advancing our neoantigen program, already with the strong support of NEC as partner and investor. I congratulate the VAXIMM team, under Dr. Lubenau’s leadership, for bringing this important project to clinical testing stage. We are delighted that the NOI team will now take this program forward into the clinic with the goal of bringing a novel therapy to patients in desperate need of more treatment options.”

VAXIMM’s plug and play DNA vaccination technology is based on a live attenuated, safe, orally available bacterial vaccine strain, which is modified to stimulate patients’ cytotoxic T-cells to target a wide range of cancer-related antigens. The Company has a pipeline of complementary development candidates targeting different tumor structures.

(Press release / SK)