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Pharmexa presenting data from influenza projects


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Summary: Pharmexa-Epimmune, a subsidiary of Pharmexa A/S, presented selected data from their influenza program today at the Keystone Symposium on “Respiratory Viruses of Animals Causing Disease in Humans” being held in Singapore.

Pharmexa-Epimmune, a subsidiary of Pharmexa A/S, presented selected data from their influenza program today at the Keystone Symposium on “Respiratory Viruses of Animals Causing Disease in Humans” being held in Singapore. Our vaccine strategy combines the use of two technologies. The first technology provides a mechanism to identify conserved portions of the virus that are relevant to the immune system, which can be used to develop a “universal” influenza virus vaccine. The vaccine is designed to induce cellular (T-cell) immune responses and is predicted to be effective against current circulating and novel viral strains, such as the H5N1 avian influenza virus strain. The second approach is based on the proprietary “universal” helper T- cell epitope peptide, PADRE®. Specifically, the viral surface protein, hemagglutinin (HA), was modified to incorporate PADRE. This modification enhanced the capability of the HA protein for inducing influenza-specific antibody responses. Theoretically, this modification will increase the utility of the vaccine for inducing protective immune responses and will allow the use of less protein in the vaccine formulations.

Data was presented supporting both vaccine approaches. For the “universal” influenza vaccine, the presented data demonstrated that T-cell responses to conserved influenza epitopes can be identified with Pharmexa-Epimmune’s proprietary Epitope Identification System (EIS®). For the PADRE-modified HA vaccine, data was presented to demonstrate that the vaccine can induce high- concentration, anti-HA antibodies at low doses where the control non-modified HA vaccine is ineffective.

Marc Hertz, CEO of Pharmexa-Epimmune says: “The data we presented are important for several reasons. Firstly, for the universal vaccine approach, the T-cell response data support the belief that the epitopes we’ve identified are relevant; we demonstrated that the immune system has recognized the epitopes in the course of past exposures to influenza. Secondly, the data presented with our PADRE-HA vaccine validate the value of this technology to address vaccine potency.”

Hørsholm, December 13, 2006
Jakob Schmidt
Chief Executive Officer

Note to editors: Pharmexa A/S is a leading company in the field of active immunotherapy and vaccines for the treatment of cancer, serious chronic and infectious diseases. Pharmexa’s proprietary technology platforms are broadly applicable, allowing the company to address critical targets in cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, bone degeneration and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as serious infectious diseases such as HIV, influenza, hepatitis and malaria. Its leading programs are GV1001, a peptide vaccine that has entered phase III trials in pancreatic cancer and phase II trials in liver cancer, and HIV and hepatitis vaccines in phase I/II. Collaborative agreements include H. Lundbeck, Innogenetics, IDM Pharma, ImmunoVaccine Technologies and Bavarian Nordic. With operations in Denmark, Norway and USA, Pharmexa employs approximately 100 people and is listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange under the trading symbol PHARMX.



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