On March 13, 2019 Transgene (Euronext Paris:TNG), a biotech company that designs and develops virus-based immunotherapies against cancers and infectious diseases, reported that the NEOVIVA project was selected by the "Investments for the Future" (IFP) Programme (Programme d’Investissements d’Avenir) operated by Bpifrance for the development of an industrial sector focused on Transgene’s individualized immunotherapy platform myvac (Press release, Transgene, MAR 13, 2019, View Source [SID1234534268]). Under the agreement, the NEOVIVA project will receive €5.2 million over the five-year duration of the program from Bpifrance, of which Transgene will receive €2.6 million.

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Transgene holds the intellectual property of the myvac platform and is actively working to further develop this innovative technology in collaboration with its three French partners participating in the NEOVIVA project: HalioDx in Marseille, Traaser in Evry and the Curie Institute in Paris. The NEOVIVA project complements the already existing collaboration between Transgene and the Japanese company NEC focused on the clinical validation of an individualized immunotherapy based on artificial intelligence.

The goal of the NEOVIVA project is to develop and validate a manufacturing approach that would provide all solutions needed for the development of individualized immunotherapies. These are designed to stimulate the patient’s immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells by using their own genetic mutations. Two proof of concept clinical trials are being prepared in Europe and US for the treatment of HPV-negative head and neck cancers and ovarian cancer. These are expected to start in H2 2019.

"We would like to thank Bpifrance for its financial support which will accelerate the development of myvac. This funding is a further recognition of the myvac platform and reinforces our ambition to stand as a world leader in the development of individualized viral-vector (MVA) based immunotherapies. We believe the synergies among our partners and their respective teams are highly complementary and harness creativity which will lead to the success of our project. We are delighted to have access to our partners’ expertise through the NEOVIVA project," said Philippe Archinard, CEO and Chairman of Transgene.

Aïcha Douhou, Leader of the Health sector at the innovation department, Bpifrance commented: "We are delighted to support Transgene and its partners HalioDX, Traaser and the Curie Institute in their innovative approach for the design and development of individualized immunotherapy against solid tumors. We expect this project to further boost the development of Transgene bioproduction manufacturing unit for this individualized immunotherapy."

This consortium which combined bio-engineering, bioIT and a recognized know-how in viral vectorisation will be led by Transgene and each partner will contribute to the project as follows:

Transgene will be responsible for the project’s strategy and the clinical development plan. The product design for each patient will be generated in collaboration with NEC which will provide bioIT predictions needed to finalise the immunotherapy. Transgene will also manufacture the myvacTM clinical batches in its pilot manufacturing unit on the short timelines required for the treatment;
Traaser will be in charge of the interpretation of the genomic profiles determined by DNA sequencing. This will be used to facilitate, guide and secure the study of the individualized virotherapy artificial intelligence algorithms results;
HalioDx will study biomarkers to monitor and maximize the clinical efficacy of myvacTM with Immunogram, a high-tech clinical research platform that includes a suite of proprietary tests including Immunosign and the Immunoscore assay suite;
The Curie Institute (Immunotherapy Cancer Centre, led by Dr Amigorena) will contribute to the project in generating translational data and characterizing the therapy’s mechanism of action.