On August 30, 2018 the Norwegian biotech company Ultimovacs AS took over the immunotherapy technology business of the Swedish company Immuneed AB last month (Press release, Ultimovacs, AUG 30, 2018, View Source [SID1234536998]). The complementary technologies of the two companies provide a unique platform for development of novel vaccine solutions for treatment and possibly prevention of cancer.
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The acquired business has been named Ultimovacs AB and is now a fully-owned Swedish subsidiary of Ultimovacs AS. The business is located in Uppsala and has two employees.
"In Ultimovacs, we have been looking for an adjuvant technology that can further improve cancer vaccines. Simultaneously, Immuneed has been searching for a peptide based vaccine platform for further testing of their technology. This is a perfect match", says Øyvind Kongstun Arnesen, CEO of Ultimovacs.
Ultimovacs is a Norwegian pharmaceutical company developing novel immunotherapies against cancer. The lead product candidate is UV1, a peptide-based vaccine inducing a specific T cell response against the universal cancer antigen telomerase. UV1 is currently in clinical testing in the US. The purchase price of the technology business of Immuneed AB was NOK 50.4 million, corresponding to SEK 54.5 million, which was paid partly in cash and partly in shares in Ultimovacs AS. "We are very excited about this merger. By joining forces with Ultimovacs, with their promising cancer vaccine and significant experience from clinical development, we believe the potential of the TET platform technology can be realized and benefit patients faster and better", says Camilla Huse Bondesson, Chairman of the Board of Immuneed AB.
The value of the Immuneed technology to Ultimovacs
Based on an exclusive license agreement with the Leiden University Medical Centre, Immuneed has developed technology (named the ‘TET-platform’) that Ultimovacs believes can attractively complement the cancer vaccine under development by Ultimovacs.
The TET-platform addresses the general challenge of so called "adjuvants" that enhance the desired response of the immune system to a vaccine. It makes it possible to incorporate adjuvant and the vaccine itself into one molecule. When using the technology from Immuneed, the antibodies formed by a previous vaccine can function as adjuvant for a new vaccine. This principle is general and can be applied as an adjuvant for many different vaccines. The principle and the technology have been successfully validated in different pre-clinical models.
Ultimovacs considers the TET-platform technology as a promising and general strategy to strengthen and increase T cell responses against cancer vaccine peptides. In parallel with the continued development of the therapeutic cancer vaccine UV1, Ultimovacs will therefore pursue the development of a new first-in-class cancer vaccine solution based on the proprietary TET-platform technology.