Mucovax

History

• Biomedical Research Models (BRM) was established in 1996 as a spin out of UMass, Worcester. It operated as a CRO and concurrently developed a vaccine platform.
• Joinn LTD of China purchased Biomere's CRO in December 2019. The Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) required separation of Biomere's vaccine Intellectual Property (IP) from the CRO prior to sale.
• Mucosal Vaccine Technologies LLC (MVT) was established as the IP company. All the vaccine IP/products developed with $14.5 million of funding over 15 years were assigned to MVT at the time of the sale of the CRO business, including patents, licenses, equipment, and key vaccine components.

Who is MVT?

MVT was a 2019 spinout from Biomere. It was established to hold the Intellectual Property of Biomere as a condition of its sale to Joinn LTD of China. It holds all the vaccine IP developed over 15 years at Biomere with a value of $14.5 MM.

What is the prevalence of genital herpes?

• 776k new cases in the US annually
• 12% prevalence in adults
• more than 490 million patients worldwide (2016 per WHo study)

Herpes and HIV?

Per WHO, people with HSV-2 are three times more likely to become HIV infected when exposed. WHO concludes that HSV-2 plays a role in the global spread of HIV.

The first product to be developed is a genital herpes (HSV-2) vaccine candidate. About 12% of the U.S. population between 14 and 49 have HSV-2 and, according to the CDC, almost 500 million worldwide.

Crozet's partners bring over 200 years collective experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, developing more than 18 vaccines including nine licensed vaccines of which six are viral. In 2014-2017 the team (as employees of NewLink Genetics) and in partnership with Merck, spearheaded the development of the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine from clinical through Phase III and pre-PPQ manufacturing, which Merck had licensed from NewLink.

Crozet is led by internationally renowned vaccinologist Dr. Thomas Monath and has core competencies in project management, virology, animal models, toxicology, GMP manufacturing, analytics, quality control, clinical immunology, medical affairs, and clinical operations.

Funding Support

MVT owns all pertinent rights, interests, and intellectual property rights to develop and bring this and other future products to market.

With funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and private investors, MVT is utilizing its proprietary platform and Crozet's vaccine development expertise to bring its genital herpes (HSV-2) vaccine candidate to market.

Team

Vaccine Platform Potential

Article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6468177/

Table: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6468177/table/cei13285-tbl-0002/?report=objectonly