Selecta, JDRF and Sanofi collaborate to develop SVP for type 1 diabetes

US clinical-stage biopharma company Selecta Biosciences and JDRF have extended their joint research collaboration and attracted French pharma major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) as a partner in support of their program to develop a synthetic vaccine particle (SVP) immunotherapy with the long-term goal to treat and potentially prevent the underlying cause of type 1 diabetes.

This is the second deal between Selecta and Sanofi, which have previously entered into a collaboration to discover highly targeted, antigen-specific immunotherapies for life-threatening allergies worth a potential $900 million to the US firm.

This new collaborative research program is aimed at accelerating the advancement of an SVP immunotherapy designed to reset the immune system and restore tolerance to substances (antigens) that cause the immune attacks on insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Selecta’s proprietary tolerogenic SVP products show potential to re-educate the immune system to stop or suppress pro-inflammatory responses against a specific antigen, thereby halting the undesirable immune reaction without causing harmful global immune suppression common with general immune system modulating drugs.