Date: 2016-10-12
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound: IFN alpha-Kinoid
Company: Neovacs (France) Cochin Hospital (France)
Therapeutic area: Metabolic diseases
Type agreement: R&D
Action mechanism: kinoid/immunotherapy product. A Kinoid is obtained by chemically linking the cytokine of interest to a foreign carrier protein, KLH ( Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin), and then treating the resultant compound to inactivate the cytokine. These active immunotherapies have been designed to induce an antibody response by the patient’s immune system that targets a particular over-expressed cytokine responsible for the pathogenesis and development of a given disease. The Kinoid technology can be applied in principle to any cytokine target. Three targets (Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF), Interferon alpha (IFNalpha) and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) are considered as playing a key role in the pathogenesis of certain diseases.
Disease: type 1 diabetes
Details: * On October 12, 2016, Neovacs announced a collaboration with Doctor Agnès Lehuen and Professor Christian Boitard, who are leading the laboratory for Research in Immunology of Diabetes at the Cochin Hospital in Paris. The goal of this collaboration is to achieve proof of concept for the use of Neovacs’ IFNa lpha Kinoid in the treatment of type 1 diabetes. As part of this collaboration, Doctor Lehuen and Professor Boitard’s teams will jointly conduct research with scientists from Neovacs on INFalpa Kinoid in NOD models (Non-Obese Diabetic mice). Existing scientific publications offer a significant body of evidence to support the involvement of IFNalpha in Type 1 diabetes. This preclinical study aims to determine whether the use of the IFNalpha Kinoid vaccine can control this disorder by producing polyclonal neutralizing antibodies to interferon alpha.
Neovacs has already demonstrated in a Phase I /II study in lupus that anti-interferon antibodies have a biological activity capable of neutralizing the IFN signature, with a long-term positive effect. The same principle could be applied in Type 1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune disease also having an IFNalpha signature as observed in lupus, and characterized by an overexpression of this cytokine.
Financial terms:
Latest news: * On January 25, 2017, Neovacs announced the recommendation of its Scientific Advisory Board to extend the development of IFN Kinoid to a new indication, type 1 diabetes, with the objectives of obtaining preclinical proof of concept in 2017 and initiating clinical development for this program in the first half of 2018. The recommendation issued by the Company’s scientific advisory Board is based on achieving a high level of immunogenicity after IFN Kinoid administration, in a relevant preclinical model of Type 1 diabetes. Indeed, Neovacs observed in treated NOD-Mice, a significant level of anti-interferon Alpha neutralizing antibodies. This study was conducted by Neovacs in collaboration with Doctor Agnès Lehuen and Professor Christian Boitard from the department of Immunology of Diabetes at the Hospital Cochin in Paris. The rationale for pursuing Type 1 diabetes is further supported by well-established data showing that overexpression of IFNalpha plays a key role in this autoimmune disease, as also observed in lupus and dermatomyositis.
