PRESS RELEASE · PRESS RELEASE · PRESS RELEASE
Neovacs announces in vivo Proof of Concept success
for its IL-4 / IL-13 Kinoid a new Therapeutic Vaccine
to treat Mite-induced Asthma
- IL-4 / IL-13 Kinoid induces strong production of neutralizing antibodies against cytokines IL-4 and IL-13 and inhibits bronchoconstriction
- These results will help to define the future development in this indication in order to provide patients with long-term protection against allergic diseases.
Paris and Boston, November 7, 2018 - 5:45 pm CET- Neovacs (Euronext Growth Paris ALNEV), leader in active immunotherapy for the treatment of auto-immune and inflammatory diseases, announces today the successful in vivo proof of concept testing of its IL-4 / IL1-3 Kinoid therapeutic vaccine to treat respiratory allergies, in collaboration with a research team from the Institut Pasteur.
The IL-4 / IL-13 Kinoid, a therapeutic vaccine from Neovacs' innovative technology is designed to target allergic diseases such as asthma and food allergies. The results obtained in this preclinical study show that the vaccine is able to inhibit bronchoconstriction, and therefore to restore breathing capacity.
"These results establish a very important proof of concept for the strategy of our therapeutic products platform development based on Kinoid technology," said Miguel Sieler, CEO of Neovacs. "They validate our ability to produce effective drug candidates to treat chronic inflammatory diseases such as asthma which affects more than 300 million people worldwide[1]."
These results were obtained in collaboration with Dr. Pierre Bruhns and Dr. Laurent Reber's research team from Antibodies in therapy and Pathology, Inserm Unit 1222, Immunology department at Institut Pasteur:"These results represent an important step in the development of a long-term treatment against allergies, for which there is still no effective long lasting solution ", says Dr. Pierre Bruhns. Dr. Laurent Reber adds: "In this study we have targeted a decisive pathway to counteract the developing allergies process, IL-4 / IL-13 Kinoid could potentially be used to treat many types of allergic conditions."
In July 2018, Neovacs announced clinical results of its Phase IIb trial with IFNalpha Kinoid for the treatment of Lupus, validating its innovative approach in humans, and is pursuing now this clinical development into Phase III.
The company will continue in parallel with the next steps of this very promising IL-4 / IL-13 Kinoid program as well as the ongoing preclinical work in type 1 diabetes with IFNalpha Kinoide.
About Allergies
Allergies are a major public health problem whose prevalence is steadily increasing, affecting globally 300 million people suffer from asthma and about 200 to 250 million people suffer from food allergies. One tenth of the population suffers from drug allergies and 400 million from rhinitis1. To date, there is no effective treatment over time for these diseases. The cytokines IL-4 and IL-13 play a key role in allergic reactions and therefore represent major therapeutic targets. Most current treatments for allergies are symptomatic (mainly antihistamines and corticosteroids). The only therapeutic strategy developed to date is allergen-specific immunotherapy, which consists of administering increasing doses of an allergen over several months for desensitization. However, allergen-specific immunotherapy is limited by high levels of biomedical adverse reactions and poor long-term efficacy, particularly for food allergies.
About Neovacs
Listed on Euronext Growth since 2010, Neovacs is today a leading biotechnology company focused on an active immunotherapy technology platform (Kinoids) with applications in autoimmune and/or inflammatory diseases. On the basis of the company's proprietary technology for inducing a polyclonal immune response (covered by four patent families that potentially run until 2032) Neovacs is focusing its clinical development efforts on IFNalpha Kinoid, an immunotherapy being developed for the indication of lupus, dermatomyositis and also in preclinical trial for Type 1 diabetes. Neovacs is also conducting preclinical development works on other therapeutic vaccines in the fields of auto-immune diseases, oncology and allergies. The goal of the Kinoid approach is to enable patients to have access to safe treatments with efficacy that is sustained in these life-long diseases. www.neovacs.fr
Contacts
NEOVACS - Corporate Communication & Investor Relations
Charlène Masson
+33 1 53 10 93 00
cmasson@neovacs.com
NEWCAP- Media
Annie-Florence Loyer
+33 1 44 71 00 12 / + 33 6 88 20 35 59
afloyer@newcap.fr
Léa Jacquin
+33 1 44 71 20 41 / +33 6 58 14 84 66
ljacquin@newcap.fr
ORPHEON FINANCE - Financial Communication and Investor Relations
James Palmer
+33 7 60 92 77 74
j.palmer@orpheonfinance.com
[1] Pawankar: Allergic diseases and asthma: a global public health concern and a call to action. World Allergy Organization Journal 2014 7:12.
