EpiVax links with Novozymes Biopharma to advance autoimmune diseases treatment

23 December 2014

Danish drugmaker Novozymes’ (NZYMB: CO) Veltis albumin-based half-life extension platform will help move Tregitope treatment for autoimmune diseases closer to clinical development.

Privately-held US biotech firm EpiVax and Novozymes Biopharma yesterday announced that they have entered a license agreement for the development of novel treatments for autoimmune diseases. The agreement follows two years of successful feasibility studies and it allows EpiVax to use Novozymes' albumin technologies to develop cutting edge immunotherapies.

EpiVax has identified a set of natural peptide sequences, called Tregitopes, derived from Immunoglobulin G (IgG) that are potent activators of natural T regulatory cells (hence Tregitope). The initial application targeted by the Novozymes/EpiVax collaboration will be the development of a recombinant alternative to intravenous IgG (IVIG) treatment, a global market that exceeded $6 billion in 2014.

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