Tag: ragweed pollen
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: Anergis Presents Preclinical Data of its Ragweed Allergy Vaccine Candidate AllerR
– AllerR induces formation of antibodies recognizing natural ragweed allergens –
Anergis, a company developing breakthrough allergy vaccines for fast and safe allergen-specific immunotherapy, reported today that it will present preclinical data for its ragweed allergy vaccine at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) in San Antonio, TX.*
The results demonstrate the hypoallergenicity of AllerR and the successful recognition of the natural ragweed allergen Amb a 1 by the mouse immune system after immunization with AllerR.
The poster no. 136 will be presented on Saturday, February 23, 2013, at 9:45am CST in session no. 2210 “Immunotherapy I” at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Street Level, Exhibit Hall C. The abstract of the poster titled “Non-Detectable IgE Binding of an Amb a 1 Derived, Contiguous Overlapping Peptide Based, SIT Product Candidate Against Ragweed Allergy” is available at:
http://download.journals.elsevierhealth.com/pdfs/journals/0091-6749/PIIS0091674912028163.pdf
AllerR is a mix of seven Contiguous Overlapping Peptides (COPs) derived from the COP platform of Anergis. In the experiments, AllerR showed no detectable IgE binding in competition ELISA tests using sera from allergic patients and did not induce degranulation of humanized basophil cells, a standard test used to test the ability of a protein or peptide to elicit an allergic reaction in humans. In addition, mice sensitized to the natural allergen Amb a 1 showed no reactivity to AllerR, whereas the administration of Amb a 1 in these animals lead to anaphylactic responses. The immunogenicity of AllerR was also tested in naïve mice and showed that each COP composing AllerR elicited an antibody response and that these antibodies specifically recognized the natural Amb a 1 allergen.
In the U.S., ragweed pollen allergy is the major cause of hay fever: 75% of all patients suffering from pollen allergies carry a ragweed pollen allergy. It affects about 20% of the U.S. population and is also on the rise in Europe due to the spread of ragweed (Ambrosia genus) plants accidentally introduced to Europe. The major allergenic protein has been identified as Amb a 1, a 38 kDa non-glycosylated protein composed of two subunits.
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* The poster entitled “Non-Detectable IgE Binding of an Amb a 1 Derived, Contiguous Overlapping Peptide Based, SIT Product Candidate Against Ragweed Allergy” is also being published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology – February 2013 (Vol. 131, Issue 2, Supplement, Page AB37, DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2012.12.815)
Company News: Anergis Reaches Important Milestones with Second Product Candidate AllerR
– US Regulatory path for new vaccine against ragweed pollen allergies established –
Anergis, a company developing breakthrough allergy vaccines for fast and safe allergen-specific immunotherapy, reported today that it has reached several preclinical development milestones with AllerR, a novel allergy vaccine candidate for the treatment of patients with allergies to ragweed pollen. In addition, the company received positive feedback from the FDA on its AllerR development program.
In the development of AllerR, its second allergy vaccine candidate, Anergis reached essential preclinical milestones and held its first meeting with the US FDA in preparation for the first clinical trial of AllerR in patients allergic to ragweed pollen.
In preclinical experiments carried out by Anergis, binding of the AllerR peptides to IgE antibodies of allergic patients remained consistently undetectable in all conditions tested. In mice pre-sensitized to ragweed pollen, AllerR, unlike natural ragweed allergens, did not elicit an anaphylaxis-like response. And, importantly, AllerR was found to elicit antibody responses in mice, in which the antibodies recognized the natural ragweed allergens. Following collection of these data, Anergis held a pre-IND meeting with the U.S. FDA during which the regulatory path was clearly established until and including the clinical Phase I trial protocol.