A biotechnology company developing a novel vaccine platform to treat people who are allergic to the Japanese Red Cedar and Mountain Cedar trees which holds the potential to combat other allergies has rounded up $3 million, according to a Form D filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Immunomic Therapeutics Inc., a Hershey, Pennsylvania-based company, initiated a Phase 1 clinical trial last autumn in Hawaii where there is a substantial Japanese expat community and was expected to start a Phase 2 trial this year, according to its website.
The funding will be used to advance the Japanese Red Cedar Allergy vaccine through Phase 1b/II trials. It will also be used to complete the company’s preclinical work and file its IND for an innovative peanut allergy vaccine.
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Immunomic’s vaccine uses what’s called a Lysosomal Associated Membrane Protein vaccine platform, or LAMP for short. It is designed to significantly increase the effectiveness of the immune response and simplify vaccine design and delivery, to produce more cost-effective human and animal therapies. The technology came out of a $20 million research project led by Dr. Tom August at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and funded by the National Institutes of Health, according to its website.
In addition to the Japanese red cedar, the company is also developing a vaccine for a closely related allergy from a similar tree in North America — the Mountain Cedar — to which many Japanese expats and Americans are allergic. The tree is particularly common in Texas and surrounding states in the Midwest and Southwest.
The market potential is pretty substantial for the tree allergies alone. In Japan, up to 45 percent of people are allergic to Japanese red cedar pollen.
In addition to allergies the company is also developing its vaccine platform to treat cancers such as prostate cancer and infectious diseases.
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