Selexis signs license deal with SpyBiotech on HCMV vaccine program

In just a little over a week, Selexis has announced three agreements with drug developers – Pandion, BITT and now UK biotech firm SpyBiotech – that are levering Selexis’ SUREtechnology Platform to develop a variety of biologics and vaccines.

Selexis, a JSR Life Sciences company based in Switzerland, says the commercial license agreement with SpyBiotech will advance the development of the company’s lead vaccine program for human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). Under the new agreement, SpyBiotech will leverage Selexis’ proprietary SUREtechnology Platform to generate cell lines vital to advancing this HCMV program to human clinical trials.

SpyBiotech’s technology is particularly exciting, says Selexis, because it can circumvent the significant complexities and challenges of binding antigens to vaccine delivery platforms. As a result, it may now be possible to develop vaccines previously thought to be too difficult to pursue. Since HCMV may infect nearly one in three US children by the age of five, a vaccine that can be developed quickly will be of great interest to the public health community.