Poolbeg Pharma confirms licence deal for AnaBio's oral vaccine platform

London-listed Irish infectious diseases specialist Poolbeg Pharma (AIM: POLB) today confirmed that it has signed the licence deal for AnaBio Technologies’ microencapsulation and nanoencapsulation technologies to develop an oral vaccine delivery platform.

This follows the binding term sheet announced last month. The new licence provides Poolbeg with exclusive access to AnaBio’s microencapsulation and nanoencapsulation technologies for use in the development and commercialization of vaccines. Combined with the company’s expertise in infectious diseases and vaccine development, Poolbeg will use this technology as a platform to complement its existing and growing pipeline of assets by developing oral vaccines for multiple disease indications.

This is the latest in several licence agreements that Poolbeg has completed since its IPO in July 2021, demonstrating delivery against commitments made at the time of listing. The company’s pipeline of assets continues to expand and is increasing in diversity with the addition of this innovative oral vaccine delivery platform. This latest licencing agreement follows swiftly on the back of a series of other recently announced potentially ground-breaking infectious disease asset deals. This includes the first-in-class, intranasally administered, RNA-based immunotherapy for respiratory virus infections announced on January 17.

Previous collaborations

In December 2021, Poolbeg announced that it had successful signed an option agreement to licence an intramuscular Melioidosis vaccine (POLB 003). Melioidosis is a disease which presents a dangerous and underappreciated threat to human health which currently has no approved vaccine and a very high mortality rate and in addition, concerns are growing around global warming contributing to the spread of the disease to traditionally non-tropical areas. These new assets are in addition to the company’s lead program, POLB 001, a treatment for severe influenza. Post-pandemic the global community recognizes the importance of vaccines and treatments against infectious disease and governments are hugely increasing their investment into influenza pandemic preparedness.