Pharmexa presents data from influenza program

Summary: Pharmexa-Epimmune, the U.S.-based subsidiary of Pharmexa A/S, presents selected data from its influenza vaccine program today at the Influenza Conference entitled, “Options for the Control of Influenza VI,” held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The data show that a “universal” vaccine designed to induce cell-mediated immune responses can protect transgenic mice against lethal experimental influenza virus challenge.

Pharmexa-Epimmune, the U.S.-based subsidiary of Pharmexa A/S, presented selected data from its influenza vaccine program today at the Influenza Conference entitled, “Options for the Control of Influenza VI,” held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company’s “universal” vaccine strategy combines the use of multiple technologies developed over the past decade. Specifically, the experimental vaccine protected HLA transgenic mice, which are partially “humanized” against a lethal influenza virus infection.

The vaccine is designed to induce T-cell responses to highly-conserved influenza epitopes that were identified using the proprietary Epitope Identification System (EIS®). Pharmexa-Epimmune’s approach is unique to the field where most vaccines are designed with the explicit goal of inducing antibody responses. The goal is to design and test a vaccine that will be protective as a “universal” influenza virus vaccine against both seasonal and pandemic viral strains.

Mark Newman, Ph.D., SVP, Global R&D Laboratories, noted: “These data are very promising and important to us for two reasons. First, we were able to demonstrate protection of the HLA transgenic mice from lethal influenza virus challenge using a vaccine designed to induce only T-cell responses. Second, we were able to demonstrate that the immune system of humans had recognized the selected vaccine epitopes as the result of past exposures to influenza virus and that the HLA transgenic mice responded in a similar manner.”