Date: 2016-12-16
Type of information: Development agreement
Compound: DNA-based HIV-vaccine FIT-06 and VAC-3S
Company: FIT Biotech (Finland) Innavirvax (France)
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases
Type agreement: development commercialisation
Action mechanism: immunotherapy product/vaccine. The VAC-3S vaccine is intented to induce sustainable levels of anti-3S peptide antibodies in patients, therefore blocking the 3S peptide-mediated pathway of CD4+ T lymphocyte depletion. 3S is a short and conserved peptide from the gp41 envelope protein of the HIV-1 and was shown to be responsible for the loss of CD4+ T lymphocytes in HIV infected patients. The VAC-3S vaccine will not have a direct effect on the virus replication and propagation itself. It promotes immune restoration by improving CD4 FIT-06 has the unique property of improving HIV-specific immune responses leading to a reduction in viral load, and an increase in CD4+ T cells. The combination of these agents is anticipated to be synergistic, and lead to augmented immune function, and control of viral replication from the latent reservoir following the discontinuation of antiretroviral therapy.
homeostasis, and increases the CD4/CD8 ratio.
Disease: HIV infection
Details: * On December 16, 2016, FIT Biotech and InnaVirVax announced a collaboration in HIV-treatment combining VAC-3S and FIT-06, their proprietary immunotherapeutic HIV-vaccines having a different mode of action with a potentially synergistic effect in functional HIV-cure. The goal of this collaboration is to develop a combination of immunotherapies towards the establishment of a functional cure for HIV. The partners plan to start a phase II trial in 2017 to evaluate the safety, tolerability, immunogenicity and clinical efficacy of FIT Biotech’s DNA-based HIV-vaccine in combination with InnaVirVax’s immunoprotective vaccine. InnaVirVax will conduct and fund the clinical study in return for co-ownership of the immunotherapy. Upon successful completion of the study, the companies plan to jointly seek additional third party support and resources to further develop and commercialize the combination of the two products.
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