BioVaxys Technology and Sona Nanotech have entered a research collaboration to develop advanced therapeutics that enhance the immune response against cancer cells.
The partnership will combine BioVaxys’ DPX Immune Educating Platform with Sona’s Targeted Hyperthermia Therapy (THT), which uses infrared light to treat solid tumours.
THT employs Sona’s Gold Nanorod (GNR) technology, which absorbs infrared light to generate heat, stimulating a strong immune response.
The collaboration will assess the immune-stimulatory effects of the DPX and THT combination, using DPX’s ability to prime the innate immune system and activate the adaptive immune response.
The research will also explore the combined use of THT and DPX to deliver novel neoantigens, which are unique proteins arising from cancer cell changes.
Neoantigens play a critical role in stimulating an anti-tumour immune response, potentially boosting the efficacy of THT.
BioVaxys president and COO Kenneth Kovan said: “We are very pleased to have the opportunity to evaluate synergies between our DPX platform and Sona’s THT and GNR technologies, as our collaboration is ideal for advancing the highly promising applications of our respective technologies.
“With Sona’s exciting study data and the clinical trial data we have with DPX it’s conceivable that our collaboration could lead to a new and even better treatment for immunotherapy-resistant solid tumours.”
Research studies will be conducted at Dalhousie University, with Sona CMO Carman Giacomantonio and Barry Kennedy from Dalhousie University as Principal Investigators.
Both companies will contribute their technologies, with research costs covered by the Giacomantonio Immuno-Oncology Research Group.
They will jointly own any therapeutic candidates developed through the collaboration.
Also, the two companies plan to enter a commercialisation agreement for a vaccine clinical candidate before initiating any Phase 1 study.
Sona’s GNR platform technology is designed to shrink cancerous tumours and is free from the toxicity risks associated with other GNR technologies.
In preclinical studies, its GNR-based THT has been shown to induce cancer-specific cell death and activate a strong immune response.
BioVaxys’ DPX technology is a patented delivery platform that incorporates bioactive molecules to produce targeted, long-lasting immune responses.
Sona Nanotech Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Carman Giacomantonio said: “Looking beyond our approaching first-in-human Early Feasibility Study clinical trial for our THT cancer therapy, Sona continues to conduct research to build our pipeline of programs to fully exploit the potential of our GNR technology platform.
“To that end, we’re pleased to enter this research collaboration with BioVaxys whose DPX technology provides a unique delivery system that better presents antigens to the immune system.
“We believe that DPX, with its immune stimulating properties and antigen presentation capabilities, could be an ideal carrier for the neo-antigens that Sona’s THT enables, thereby accelerating THT’s efficacy and so we look forward to working with the BioVaxys team to quickly assess the potential for technology synergies.”
