TIDMHEMO
Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC
09 January 2023
9 January 2023
RNS Reach - Non-Regulatory
Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc
("Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals" or the "Company")
Single CBR Can Treat Multiple Viruses
Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc (LSE: HEMO) announces that it has
made significant progress towards the practical use of its Chimeric
Bait Receptor ("CBR") platform technology, designed to program
immune cells to eliminate viral infections by destroying the
viruses that cause them. The Company's scientists have identified a
target protein that can be incorporated into a single multipurpose
CBR-based therapeutic capable of treating multiple viruses that
belong to different viral families, instead of having to make a
separate CBR construct for every virus. Among them are Dengue,
Ebola, Marburg, Zika and Chikungunya. These viruses are among the
most dangerous to humans, causing serious and often fatal diseases,
and for which few effective treatment options exist.
Shareholders will recall that the Company has been working on
cell therapies which have shown great promise in the treatment of
cancers. Using the Company's expertise in developing cell therapies
for cancer, it developed an approach that can be used to bring cell
therapy approaches to another unmet need, the treatment of major
existing and emerging viral infections, including SARS-CoV-2.
Called Chimeric Bait Receptor, the approach is a platform
technology that can be used to program the immune cells that are
responsible for innate immunity (e.g., macrophages) to eliminate
viruses.
The Directors believe that this significant discovery of a
single target protein for use against multiple dangerous viruses is
further evidence of the potential power of the Company's CBR
technology, and demonstrates the possibility of accelerating the
development of antiviral therapeutics as well as preventing
epidemics and pandemics that could be caused by a multitude of
pathogens.
Background and description of technology
Responding to the huge unmet need of pandemics, the Company
realized that its technology and skills developed in fighting
cancer could be used for the development of novel therapies for
life-threatening existing and emerging viral diseases. It has
developed a new proprietary platform technology that is based on
harnessing the power of the immune system and has derived potential
treatments from it, starting with one that targets SARS-CoV-2, the
virus that causes COVID-19.
The immune system has many components, some of which, like
antibodies in the blood, are well known to lay audiences. Other
aspects like T cells are less well known, but like antibodies are
very specific and, as they develop many days or weeks after
infection or vaccination, are known as "adaptive immunity". But
there are other aspects of immune protection that pre-exist before
infection, called "innate immunity". This comprises a series of
protective cells and molecules including macrophages and
interferon, for example. Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals has found a way
to activate these macrophages to kill virus infected cells and
protect against the virus by programming them with a set of novel
CBRs. Additionally, we have developed another simpler technology,
Bait-Macrophage Engagers ("BMEs"), that act like antibodies and
scavenge virus particles in the blood and neutralize them. The
Company's technology utilizes synthetic biology and artificial
intelligence ("AI") approaches to advance medicine to protect
society from future pandemics that may challenge the global
economy, health, and national defense.
While the Company's first CBR-based treatment attacks one virus,
SARS-CoV2, further research has now revealed that it is possible to
develop a single treatment for several viruses that belong to
different viral families, including those listed in the opening
paragraph.
Clinical need and how Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals is addressing
it
The need for proactive new solutions to future infectious agents
which might cause major epidemics has become clear in the wake of
the COVID-19 pandemic and especially so in the face of global
threats of biological warfare. To address this imminent threat, the
Company has developed an immunotherapy approach using cutting edge
technology that could be utilized to prevent and combat infection
by any known or emerging virus, by being able to create front-line
treatments that may prevent the development of the next pandemic.
Moreover, these new therapeutic tools can be used to protect
against bio-terrorism, potentially rendering a universe of viral
bio-weapons ineffective.
CBR allows the development of:
(1) off-the-shelf cell therapies against infectious disease.
(2) biopharmaceuticals to eliminate any potential virus in the
course of infection or to be used as a preventive treatment.
Current treatments, including vaccines, neutralizing monoclonal
antibodies, and specific anti-viral drugs, are not rapidly
available at the onset of an outbreak. Additionally, both
neutralizing antibodies and vaccines lack adaptability to new
variants of infectious viruses, losing their efficacy when viruses
mutate and "evade" the immune system. Indeed, these forms of
therapy increase the risk of immune evasion, in the same way that
overuse of antibiotics has led to antibiotic resistance. To
overcome both the lag in response time and major shortcomings of
antibody-based treatments including vaccines we are developing
"off-the-shelf" (non-patient-specific) CBR- and BME-based products
that may be directed against any viral pathogen rapidly after its
discovery.
Major advantages of our CBRs and BMEs for combatting viral
infections include:
(1) the use of a "bait" makes CBRs and BMEs insensitive to
mutations of the targeted virus, preventing the development of
resistance (unlike antibodies); as long as the virus is infective
and uses the same "door" to enter a cell, it will be eliminated by
CBR-based treatments. The bait resembles a handle of the door that
the virus uses to enter a cell.
(2) CBRs and BMEs are assembled from parts of naturally
occurring cellular receptors and/or engagers that are responsible
for the function of immune cells and endow the host's own immune
system with the ability to destroy invading pathogens.
(3) CBRs and BMEs are modular synthetic receptors and/or immune
cell engagers that can be reconfigured rapidly to attack almost any
virus. It is important to stress that this new technology also
works in cancer, on malignant cells. This work thus strengthens the
Company's anti-cancer work, and importantly opens up many
opportunities to work with public bodies, such as the military, the
National Institutes of Health, the Biomedical Advanced Research and
Development Authority ("BARDA"), as well as other leading public
health-focused foundations.
Ongoing development
It is important to emphasise that, although our work to date has
been focused on certain viruses, in particular SARS-CoV-2, as well
as on particular types of cancer, it is in principle applicable to
almost any form of virus. The Directors believe it is likely to be
of particular value in combatting emerging or rare forms of viral
infection, treating sufferers of such viruses where effective
vaccines or anti-viral drugs have not yet been developed or in
cases where they have failed to be effective. The significance and
broad applicability of this proprietary technology led the Company
to file a seminal provisional patent application for it in 2022
.
Meanwhile, the Company is conducting in vivo tests to
demonstrate that CBR could be used against infectious replicating
SARS-CoV-2 virus, including its recent dangerous variants. These
tests are being conducted using a biosafety level 3 ("BSL3")
facility that belongs to a government-owned institution. BSL3
facilities are used to work with live pathogens that can cause harm
to people. It is important to note that this work has not detracted
us from our primary focus, and our CAR-T and CDX projects continue
to make good progress.
Dr Vladislav Sandler, CEO & Co-Founder of Hemogenyx
Pharmaceuticals, commented: "We are pleased now to be announcing
further exciting developments in our CBR platform. CBR is a
ground-breaking new approach to treat existing and emerging viral
infections as well as potentially becoming an effective new form of
cancer treatment. On the viral front, its potential ability to
treat a very wide range of viruses give it the potential to
revolutionise the treatment of viral diseases and even to become
the means of counteracting biological warfare."
Enquiries:
Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc https://hemogenyx.com
Dr Vladislav Sandler, Chief Executive headquarters@hemogenyx.com
Officer & Co-Founder
Peter Redmond, Director peter.redmond@hemogenyx.com
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP Tel: +44 (0)20 3470 0470
Matthew Johnson, Vadim Alexandre,
Adam Cowl
Peterhouse Capital Limited Tel: +44 (0)20 7469 0930
Lucy Williams, Duncan Vasey, Charles
Goodfellow
About Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc
Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals is a publicly traded company (LSE:
HEMO) headquartered in London, with its US operating subsidiaries,
Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals LLC and Immugenyx LLC, located in New
York City at its state-of-the-art research facility.
The Company is a pre-clinical stage biopharmaceutical group
developing new medicines and treatments to treat blood and
autoimmune disease and to bring the curative power of bone marrow
transplantation to a greater number of patients suffering from
otherwise incurable life-threatening diseases. Hemogenyx
Pharmaceuticals is developing several distinct and complementary
product candidates, as well as platform technologies that it uses
as engines for novel product development.
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