Biotech company VAXIMM brings NEC as strategic partner and investor on board

Vaximm is a clinical-stage biotech company based in Basel and Mannheim. The company is developing oral T-cell immunotherapies for patients suffering from cancer. VAXIMM’s product platform is based on a vaccine strain, which is modified to stimulate patients’ cytotoxic T-cells to target specific structures of the tumour. In addition, VAXIMM has a neoantigen program (VXM NEO) currently in preclinical development; this platform allows for the faster generation and delivery of personalized T-cell cancer vaccines and may overcome key issues faced by other neoantigen approaches.

Moving a step further on its development journey, Vaximm has entered a strategic clinical trial collaboration and signed an equity investment agreement with NEC Corporation, a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies. NEC’s neoantigen prediction utilizes its proprietary AI which is combined with NEC OncoImmunity AS’s bioinformatics pipelines – making it the leading neoantigen prediction system in the field. NEC comprehensively evaluates candidate neoantigens, which allows it to effectively prioritize numerous candidate neoantigens identified in a single patient.

Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, NEC will provide funding for a Phase I clinical trial. NEC and VAXIMM will co-develop personalized cancer vaccines using NEC’s cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology, which is utilized in its Neoantigen Prediction System, and VAXIMM’s proprietary T-cell immunotherapy technology. The vaccines are planned to be evaluated in Phase I clinical trial in various solid tumours. Vaximm will be responsible for conducting the clinical trial, which is expected to be initiated in 2020.

NEC has the option for development and commercialization rights to the program worldwide, except for China and other Asian territories outside of Japan.

(Press release/ran)