Archive: Company News
Company News: Anergis Closes Financing Round Totaling CHF 8 M
– Preparation of Phase III trials with lead allergy vaccine AllerT
– Field-based, long-term efficacy milestone in patients from the AllerT Phase IIb trial coming up
Anergis, a company discovering and developing proprietary allergy vaccines, today announced the closing of a financing round totaling CHF 8 million. The financing was fully subscribed by existing investors and directors and was co-lead by Sunstone Capital, BioMedInvest and Renaissance PME/Vinci Capital.
Anergis will use the proceeds to further advance the clinical development of its lead product AllerT, a vaccine to treat birch pollen allergy, and to advance two additional vaccine candidates against house dust mite and ragweed allergies. For AllerT, the funds will specifically allow the preparation of Phase III trials and the conduct of a long-term efficacy follow-up trial of patients who participated in the recently completed field-based Phase II study. The results from this second follow-up season are expected to be available in the third quarter of 2014.
Company News: Anergis Obtains Core Technology Patent in Japan
– Patent covers Contiguous Overlapping Peptide technology for the development of ultra-fast allergy vaccines –
Anergis, a company focusing on proprietary allergy vaccines, today announced it was granted a Japanese patent on its key technology from the Japanese Patent Office. The patent #5389326 broadly covers the Contiguous Overlapping Peptide (COP) technology which is used by Anergis to define and select new products for the ultra-fast treatment of multiple allergies.
“We have already been granted patents protecting our COP technology in the U.S. and Australia,” said Christophe Reymond, CSO of Anergis. “COPs are pharmaceutical quality products that provide the complete allergen sequence covering all T cell epitopes, but do not elicit allergic hypersensitivity. Therefore, COPs can be administered safely at high doses to induce tolerance to the allergen after a few injections only.”
He added that Anergis has already demonstrated in Phase I/IIa and IIb trials that just five injections of its lead COP allergy vaccine AllerT over a period of two months were sufficient to achieve long-lasting immunological effects as well as seasonal symptom reductions in allergic patients, similar to conventional allergy immunotherapy.
“Obtaining patent protection in Japan is an important milestone for Anergis because the Japanese population suffers from numerous allergies, particularly to house dust mites and to Japanese cedar,” said Vincent Charlon, CEO of Anergis.
Anergis’ COP technology can be applied to a broad spectrum of allergy indications. At present, Anergis is developing AllerT for the treatment of birch pollen allergy, AllerR for ragweed pollen allergies and AllerDM for dust mite allergies.
Company News: Curetis and Laboratorios LETI Sign Exclusive Distribution Agreement for Unyvero™ in Spain and Portugal
– Five-year agreement based on extensive health economic assessment –
Curetis AG today announced that the company has closed an exclusive distribution agreement in Spain and Portugal with Laboratorios LETI, which includes all existing and future Unyvero™ instruments and consumables. LETI is a biopharmaceutical company based in Tres Cantos, near Madrid, Spain. Its diagnostics business unit distributes and markets a broad portfolio of in vitro diagnostics (IVD) and research products, among other offerings.
The agreement, effective January 1, 2014, was finalized following positive market feedback and favorable outcome of a joint, extensive health economic assessment which included four major hospitals in Spain and Portugal. The commercial launch of Unyvero™ in this region is expected in the first quarter of 2014.
For the implementation, Curetis will provide Unyvero training, marketing materials and supporting health economic research. LETI will manage all marketing and sales activities as well as storage and logistics support. The partners are targeting a market share of more than 50 percent of relevant hospitals and ICU units in the region within the next five years.
