Basel (Switzerland), Mannheim (Germany), October 2nd, 2012 – VAXIMM AG, a Swiss-German
biotech company focusing on cancer vaccines, today announced that its German subsidiary VAXIMM
GmbH has been awarded a grant from the leading-edge BioRN cluster “Cell-based and Molecular
Medicine” to expand its oral T-cell vaccine technology platform. The cluster competition is a program
of Germany´s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to promote top-notch innovation
in Germany.
VAXIMM’s lead candidate VXM01 is an oral T-cell vaccine, which targets the tumor vasculature. It is
currently in Phase I/II clinical evaluation in pancreatic cancer patients at the Heidelberg University
Hospital. The funding from the leading-edge cluster program will be used to develop additional
cancer vaccines complementary to VXM01, which are based on the same oral T-cell vaccine
technology. A second candidate (VXM06), which targets an undisclosed, abundant, tumor-specific
antigen, is already in preclinical development. Two further product candidates are at discovery stage.
VAXIMM’s oral T-cell vaccine technology has a number of advantages. The platform can easily and
rapidly generate new vaccines, including multivalent vaccines. The resulting products combine oral
efficacy with safety and excellent tolerability. Moreover, the vaccines do not require a complex
manufacturing infrastructure.
“We are pleased about the recognition of the potential of our oral T-cell vaccination platform,” said
Dr. Heinz Lubenau, General Manager of VAXIMM GmbH. “It allows leveraging our work on VXM01 to
add additional products to our promising pipeline.”
About VAXIMMs Oral T-cell Vaccine Technology:
VAXIMM's oral T-cell vaccine platform is based on an approved, live attenuated bacterial vaccine
strain, which has been applied in millions of individuals for prophylactic vaccination, and is safe and
well tolerated. To yield its oral T-cell vaccines, this strain is modified to carry the genetic information
of a specific target antigen. After oral vaccination with such modified bacteria, patients are mounting
a strong specific cellular immune response against the target. So-called killer cells of the immune
system are then targeting and destroying the corresponding cancer or cancer-associated cells. As a
result, the tumor shrinks, while metastasis formation and growth are inhibited. The scalable platform
offers many advantages, such as oral efficacy, good tolerability, and ease and low cost of candidate
generation and manufacturing.
About VAXIMM:
VAXIMM is a privately held, Swiss- and German-based biotech company that is primarily focused on
developing active immunotherapies (vaccines) for patients suffering from cancer. Its initial product
candidate VXM01 is targeting the tumor vasculature, which is essential for tumors to grow beyond
microscopic size. VXM01 has shown impressive anti-tumor activity in numerous animal studies and
commenced human clinical trials in 2011. VAXIMM was formed in 2008 as a joint venture of BB
Biotech Ventures and Merck KGaA to develop VXM01. Merck Serono Ventures, Sunstone Capital, and
BioMedPartners joined as investors in 2010. VAXIMM GmbH is a fully owned subsidiary of VAXIMM
AG, located in Mannheim, Germany. For more information, please see
Contact:
Dr. Heinz Lubenau
Tel.: +49 621 8359 687 10
Email: info@vaximm.com
Media Inquiries:
akampion
Dr. Ludger Wess / Ines-Regina Buth
Managing Partners
info@akampion.com
Tel. +49 40 88 16 59 64
Tel. +49 30 23 63 27 68
