ABOUT VAXIL
Vaxil is an Israeli biotechnology company that is focused on a novel drug discovery and development platform based on Signal Peptides (“SPs”) which the company deploys to fight infectious diseases and cancer.
Our most advanced product, ImMucin™, completed a Phase 1/2a clinical trial in multiple myeloma and received orphan drug status from the FDA and EMA. The company also announced a COVID-19 vaccine candidate in addition to its tuberculosis vaccine / treatment candidate that demonstrated promising preclinical results. Additional indications and mAb candidates are under evaluation as immuno-oncology and infectious disease treatments alone and in combination with other treatments. The Company has also initiated a pre-clinical program for ImMucin™ in combination with the E-selectin binding polymer-based therapeutic, which Vaxil licensed for development and commercialization from BGN Technologies, the technology transfer company of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Vaxil exploits the unique properties of signal peptide domains on crucial proteins to develop targeted therapies against cancer targets and infectious disease pathogens. VaxHit™, Vaxil’s proprietary bioinformatic approach, mines candidate signal peptides with predicted high immunogenicity and wide coverage over varied HLA subtypes. The SPs induce a robust T- and B-cell response. Under normal conditions signal peptides are not presented on the cell surface, thus acting as a neoantigen in tumor cells. Since these neoantigens are not a result of a mutation, but are naturally occurring sequences, these sequences will be identical among most patients providing a unique class of therapeutics – universal neoantigens. The peptide platform targets affected cells, either transformed (i.e., cancer) or infected, by “educating” or specifically activating the immune system to recognize and specifically attack these cells, and only these cells. In addition, Vaxil’s mAb platform directly recognizes the target epitopes presented on malignant cells and recruits other elements of the immune system to kill those cells.
Vaxil’s technology provides unique advantages due to the use of signal peptides as the basis for a prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine. Those advantages include:
- Induction of a complete adaptive immune response – cellular (T cell) and humoral (antibodies).
- Stimulation of a robust immune response elicited by multiple antigens within the SP.
- Wide coverage of diverse populations due to epitopes spanning varied HLA class I and class II restrictions.
- Increased immune efficiency due to circumventing the viral and tumor immune evasions, such as TAP insufficiency and HLA down-regulation.
- Improved safety profile by specifically and only targeting affected cells.
- Potential prevention of infectious disease resurgence and a novel universal class of neoantigen in oncology.
- Greater susceptibility to adaptive immunity by targeting infected cells rather than the pathogen.
Preclinical studies and the clinical Phase 1/2a trial demonstrated a good safety profile coupled with signals of biological activity for Vaxil’s SP platform and approach. Vaxil has created effective, scientifically-validated, platforms to develop targeted immuno-oncology and infectious disease treatments from discovery through clinical trials.
