EpiVax Progresses on a Vaccine to Address SARS-CoV-2 Variants

Today EpiVax, Inc. ("EpiVax") confirmed that the company's EPV-CoV-19 vaccine epitopes are 98.2% conserved in the new Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant. EpiVax and EpiVax Therapeutics, Inc. ("EVT") are also affirming commitment to move the novel T cell epitope vaccine into the clinic in 2022. EPV-CoV-19 is intended for use to protect against variants of concern (VOC) after primary SARS-CoV-2 exposure or vaccination and is nearing the clinical phase of development while formulation, IND-filing, and clinical trial protocol are finalized.

EPV-CoV-19 will boost T cell response, a key contributor to immune protection against SARS-CoV-2. Using proprietary immunoinformatics tools, EpiVax selected highly immunogenic sequences (T cell epitopes) conserved across all new types of SARS-COV-2, including alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omicron. Today's analysis of 188,758 SARS-CoV-2 sequences revealed that the vaccine epitopes are 97-99% conserved against VOC. Despite the very high number of mutations in the Omicron VOC, only three of 164 vaccine epitopes are expected to be ineffective in protecting against Omicron VOC.  

Most COVID vaccine developers have focused on antibody response to the pandemic virus while EpiVax experts, leading the world in computational vaccine design, have steadfastly observed that vaccine-induced T cell responses play a significant role in protection afforded by exposure and vaccination. EpiVax focused on identifying the highest quality (highly immunogenic) epitopes that are cross-conserved across coronavirus strains, to create a vaccine likely to be effective against all SARS-CoV-2 variants identified to date or emerging soon, including Omicron, and the vaccine epitopes were shown to be effective in human in vitro and murine in vivo studies. EPV-CoV-19 has been licensed to EVT, a privately held, investor-backed company also located in RI.

About EpiVax:

EpiVax is a biotechnology company with expertise in T cell epitope prediction, immune modulation, and rapid vaccine design. EpiVax's immunogenicity screening toolkits, ISPRI and iVAX, are employed in advancing the research of a global roster of companies.

For more information about EpiVax, visit www.epivax.com.

About EVT:

EVT employs world-leading technology from EpiVax to design therapeutics that activate T cells to cure or prevent disease. EVT's pipeline includes a COVID-19 vaccine and a personalized bladder cancer vaccine. For more information about EPV-CoV-19, visit this link, or contact Nicole Ruggiero, COO of EVT.

Source: EpiVax Inc.