An Oregon immunotherapy startup says it’s developing a vaccine platform that stimulates the immune response around the clock – potentially guarding it perpetually against diseases like herpes, HPV and HIV.
Tomegavax is building on the work of Oregon Health & Science University researcher Louis Picker, who recently received $30 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for his work in the HIV vaccine development space. The gene therapy platform works by disabling cytomegaloviruses so they can’t spread n the body.
“CMVs have the unique property of eliciting a T cell response,” CEO Michael Tipple said. “At the same time it flies under the radar, which allows it to exist and propagate – so in a therapeutic or prophylactic sense, the immune system’s constantly working and doesn’t need to be reawakened if there’s a new viral infection.”
Basically, the vaccine could create a population of helper T cells that will immediately be available to spur the rest of the immune system into action without delay, he said.
“That’s critical – what happens in herpes and several other hard-to-control diseases is that there isn’t any immune response up front,” Tipple said. “So when there’s an immune response, the body’s overwhelmed.”
Key in this development process is the fact that the majority of the world’s infected with some form of cytomegalovirus, but it doesn’t really express itself unless the person’s immunocompromised, Tipple said. Tomegavax’s vaccines super-infect, meaning they can be used in CMV-positive individuals. In addition to protecting against disease like herpes and HIV, Tipple said the platform could potentially extend to certain cancers, tuberculosis and malaria.
The company’s been wholly funded with grant money thus far – it’s received $6.8 million in SBIR grants and the like, with a few more million pending, Tipple said. Tomegavax in the process of raising a $12 million Series A.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Tipple says Tomegavax is at earliest two years away from the clinic, in its development of a prophylactic HIV vaccine. It’s about four years away from bringing a herpes therapy to the clinic, Tipple said. It’s in the process of partnering out with an as-yet-undisclosed big pharma, which it’ll be announcing shortly.
While there’s some cynicism over the possibility of creating an HIV vaccine, Tipple asserts that Tomegavax has shown proof of context in using altered CMVs to protect monkeys against Simian Immunodeficiency Virus.
