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Vaxxinity, a U.S. biotechnology company, has made strides in treating Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s as a result of unprecedented resources and energy focused on vaccine research since the pandemic began.
Covid-19 has created the first mRNA-based vaccines already approved, and Vaxxinity is now developing a new coronavirus shot using synthetic proteins that can have wide application.
“Some of the most successful medications today are biological drugs, but they are very expensive and often quite inconvenient to use. Our vision is to discontinue that drug class through next-generation vaccines,” Veixinity CEO Mei Mei Hu told the Financial Times.
Vaxxinity’s Covid-19 jab is currently using the technique it uses in phase 2 trials, which it applies to “immunotherapeutic” vaccines to “train the body to produce its own antibodies against the internal targets of the disease.” It could also be used against neurodegenerative conditions.
The plan is similar to the coronavirus vaccines against recombinant proteins being developed by Sanofi / GSK and Novavax. But instead of processing proteins in large cubes, Vaxxinity proteins are made using chemicals.
These so-called synthetic peptides mimic pike protein, as other vaccines do, but also other proteins from the Sars-Cov-2 virus that causes Covid-19.
“Commercializing Covid means proving an aspect of our platform for infectious diseases, as well as being able to nurture the development of other programs from that technology platform,” Hue said.
Mei Mei Hu: “We have solved much more time than we should in this Covid pandemic” © www.nbarrettphotography.com
Vaxxinity’s Alzheimer’s drug, which claims to use a similar technology, encourages the body to cleanse a poorly folded protein called amyloid plaque from the brain because genetic testing has linked it to symptoms of the disease. Hue said the completed phase 2 trial was not moving to a larger study to draw statistically valid conclusions.
About 35 million people worldwide have cognitive disease, and almost all of the drugs available to treat the disease treat only the symptoms. On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first Alzheimer’s medication to slow the progression of the disease.
Other pharmaceutical companies have tried to develop drugs similar to Vaxxinity treatment before, but have failed. Injectable treatment of the monoclonal antibody developed by Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson was discontinued in 2012 after a small proportion of cases in which brain inflammation developed in clinical trials. Vaxxinity said it has addressed this issue and that the product is now safe and consistent.
Coronavirus has accelerated all of Vaxxinity’s work, Hu said. “We’ve compressed what Covid pandemic would need a lot more at this time. Things that would take five years are compressed to 18 months.”
Hu added that the company has expanded its internal infrastructure to support global clinical trials and is working quickly to create a reliable supply chain.
Tickets for the Covid-19 launch, known as the UB-612, are relatively inexpensive and should not be left without freezing, so the company hopes to sell them primarily to lower-income countries. However, he says he has also been interested in developed markets, including the EU. Although the shooting has not yet been approved, Vaxxinity has already confirmed its 140m dose request, he says.
Caroline Casey, of the science analytics firm Airfinity, said Vaxxinity was one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the development of Covid-19 vaccines, such as Modern U.S. Biotechnology.
“If they manufacture a Covid vaccine and have some similar vaccines in the pipeline, manufacturing one will help classify the manufacture of the others,” he said.
Vaxxinity is a subsidiary of United Biomedical in the United States, a Taiwanese pharmaceutical group founded by Wang Chang-yi, Hu’s mother. He is also developing medications for migraines and hypercholesterolemia, a condition that leads to higher blood fat levels.
Hu said his team had grown to respond to the pandemic. “As a result, we are better positioned in relation to our other pipelines, including neuroimmune and other diseases,” he said. “It has certainly accelerated the company’s career.”
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