Emergex Vaccines Announces the Successful Coating of its Novel CD8+ T cell Adaptive COVID-19 Vaccine onto Zosano Pharma’s Micro-Needle Patch

PRESS RELEASE

Emergex Vaccines Announces the Successful Coating of its Novel CD8+ T cell Adaptive COVID-19 Vaccine onto Zosano Pharma’s Micro-Needle Patch

• Emergex’s COVID-19 and Dengue CD8+ T cell Adaptive vaccines are already in clinical trials
  
  

Abingdon, Oxon, UK, 17^th May 2022 – Emergex Vaccines Holding Limited (‘Emergex’, or the ‘Company’), a clinical stage biotechnology company addressing major global infectious diseases through the development of fully synthetic CD8+ T cell Adaptive Vaccines, today announced that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been successfully coated onto Zosano Pharma Corporation’s (NASDAQ:ZSAN) proprietary microneedle patch system. Zosano’s patch consists of an array of approximately two thousand drug-coated titanium microneedles mounted on an adhesive patch that is administered to the skin using a reusable applicator.

Emergex and Zosano have demonstrated that Emergex’s COVID-19 vaccine is stable on the patches over a wide temperature range for up to six months at 40^oC/75% relative humidity. Reducing cold chain logistics to a minimum may allow less costly and efficient vaccination programs around the world and increase global preparedness for future pandemics and disease outbreaks.

Emergex CD8+ T cell Adaptive Vaccine for COVID-19 offers the potential for long-term immune protection, thereby avoiding the need for seasonal boosting, and its broad protection is less likely to be impacted by changes (mutations) in the consensus sequence in RNA viruses leading to new variants of concern. Combining Emergex’s novel vaccine platform with Zosano’s innovative microneedle patch brings innovation in both immunological protection and delivery routes which may benefit global communities across many different infectious diseases.

Mahmoud Ameri, Ph.D., Vice President of research and development at Zosano, commented: “We are pleased to have successfully reached this six-month milestone with a COVID-19 vaccine candidate onto our microneedle patch system and to collaborate with Emergex.”

Robin Cohen, Chief Commercial Officer at Emergex, commented: “Vaccine delivery is a critical component in the global effort both to prepare for future pandemics and to prevent disease outbreaks in communities around the world. Our T cell Adaptive Vaccine technology has the potential to provide broad immune protection – covering viral strains and escape mutations as well as cellular immune memory that may last for decades. Combining this ground-breaking approach to vaccination with innovative, easy-to-use patch delivery could radically transform the vaccine landscape. We are delighted to have worked with Zosano on this exciting project.”

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About Emergex
Emergex, a clinical-stage, privately-held biotechnology company headquartered in Abingdon, UK, with an operating subsidiary in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, USA, is pioneering the development of 100% synthetic T cell Adaptive Vaccines that harness the body’s natural T cell immune response to destroy pathogen-infected cells in order to provide protection against some of the world’s most pressing health threats: [i] viral infectious diseases, amongst which are Dengue, Coronaviruses, and pandemic Influenza, as well as [ii] serious intracellular bacterial infectious diseases.

Emergex has a growing proprietary pipeline of innovative CD8+ T cell Adaptive Vaccine and booster vaccine candidates that have the potential to deliver rapid, broad (mutation-agnostic) and long-lasting immunity to reduce serious illness associated with infectious disease. Emergex has a number of Phase I clinical trials underway, of which the most advanced programmes in development are [i] Dengue (which may also be disease-modifying for other members of the Flaviviridae virus family, such as Zika and Yellow Fever) and [ii] Coronaviruses. Other programmes in development include vaccine candidates for universal (pandemic) Influenza, Chikungunya, and a booster vaccine for Yellow Fever.

Emergex’s T cell Adaptive Vaccines candidates combine two proprietary technologies, [i] an empirically determined library of pathogen-derived protein fragments expressed on the surface of pathogen-infected cells (forming the MHC Class I expression “ligandome” library), and [ii] a passivated gold nanoparticle carrier system designed to deliver the synthetic peptides to the skin-resident immune system (in combination with nociception) via microneedles in order to elicit a robust, adaptive CD8+ T cell response. With potential stability at ambient temperatures, the vaccine candidates are intended to reduce the burden and the logistics of vaccine administration.

Find out more online at www.emergexvaccines.com.

Visit our LinkedIn page or Twitter account for live updates.

About Zosano Pharma
Zosano Pharma Corporation is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on products where rapid administration of approved molecules with established safety and efficacy profiles may provide substantial benefit to patients, in markets where patients remain underserved by existing therapies. The company’s transdermal microneedle system technology consists of titanium microneedles coated with drug that are designed to enable rapid systemic administration of therapeutics to patients.
Learn more at www.zosanopharma.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained herein are forward-looking statements reflecting the current beliefs and expectations of management made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding efficiency, cost and potential of Emergex’s vaccination program, the benefits and potential uses of Zosano Pharma’s transdermal microneedle system and other future events and expectations described in this press release. Readers are urged to consider statements that include the words “may,” “will,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “might,” “believes,” “estimates,” “projects,” “potential,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “continues,” “forecast,” “designed,” “scheduled,” “goal,” “approximately” or the negative of those words or other comparable words to be uncertain and forward-looking. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict, and actual outcomes may differ materially. These include risks and uncertainties, without limitation, associated with the company’s ability to continue operations, successfully restructure its indebtedness or complete any strategic transactions and other risks and uncertainties described under the heading “Risk Factors” in the company’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Although Zosano believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, Zosano cannot in any way guarantee that the future results, level of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. All forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to Zosano and Zosano assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements.