Investment in Adjuvantix
New funds to drive development of novel vaccine enhancing technology
Biofusion plc (“Biofusion”) today announces an investment of £240,000 in Adjuvantix Ltd (“Adjuvantix”), a Sheffield-based biopharmaceutical company focussed on novel technologies to enhance immune system responses to prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. The investment will be made in two tranches, the first of which will take Biofusion’s shareholding to 41%. The second tranche is milestone dependent and, when fully invested, Biofusion’s holding in Adjuvantix will be 49%.
Adjuvantix has developed a new approach to stimulate the immune system safely and increase the effectiveness of a wide range of vaccine antigens including proteins, peptides, polysaccharides and organic molecules and thus improve vaccines for any clinical application. The technology has the potential to improve drugs for cancer and inflammatory diseases as well as infectious diseases such as TB infection and AIDS.
Adjuvantix was originally spun out of the University of Sheffield with support from the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund. Their technology is based on the work of Dr Andrew Heath, Chief Scientific Officer for Adjuvantix, and Reader in the Infection and Immunity Group, based in the highly regarded Medical School at Sheffield University. Studies of influenza and other model antigens have shown it capable of increasing antibody responses up to 1,000-fold. This capability would allow the development of vaccines against diseases where current technologies fail or where the immune system is weakened, for example in AIDS or after radio- or chemo-therapy.
The technology developed by Adjuvantix also has the potential to overcome the limitations of existing adjuvant technologies which are effective in enhancing immune responses but can also cause unwanted local and systemic side effects, such as pain, redness, swelling and fever.
The new funds invested by Biofusion will be used to validate Adjuvantix’s technology further and build a robust data package to attract pharmaceutical partners looking to co-develop products for clinical development and marketing.
David Baynes, CEO of Biofusion, said: “New vaccine approaches for both preventing and treating diseases are very much in demand and we are excited by the role Adjuvantix’s technology could play in creating a new generation of products. The investment will give real impetus to Adjuvantix’s commercial development and is an excellent example of the Biofusion model in action – providing funding and management support to generate real value from world-class university research.”
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