Award will advance the Self-Assembling Vaccine Platform for rapid production of vaccines with Massachusetts General Hospital’s Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, August 17, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- Voltron Therapeutics, Inc., a Lucius Partners Portfolio Company, in Collaboration with the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, Announces $5.88 Million Award from the U.S. Department of Defense

Award will advance the development of Self-Assembling Vaccine Platform for rapid production of prophylactic vaccines for various infectious diseases in partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital’s Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center

The Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center (VIC) at Massachusetts General Hospital in collaboration with Voltron Therapeutics, Inc., a Lucius Partners Portfolio Company, has received a $5.88 million award from the U.S. Department of Defense to advance the development of its Self-Assembling Vaccine (SAV) platform. The award will enable scalable, efficient and rapid development of prophylactic vaccines applicable to various infectious diseases and designed for use in the U.S. military, as well as in the general population.

“Our growing data sets in different therapeutic and prophylactic settings, including different animal models and targeting components, have demonstrated consistent results: excellent safety with very high, significant immunogenicity and, where tested, statistically significant efficacy,” said Dr. Mark Poznansky, Director of the VIC. He added, “The critical initiative this award will fund is designed to further demonstrate speed and meaningfully increased flexibility working with full protein targeting constructs. These constructs will allow us to explore additional viral targets in infectious diseases.”

Voltron Therapeutics and the VIC have initiated an additional research and development collaboration to demonstrate immune engagement and efficacy in three important infectious disease targets. This effort will leverage Voltron’s SAV platform, which has demonstrated statistically significant immunogenicity and/or efficacy in pre-clinical studies in two immune oncology settings and immunogenicity in an infectious disease setting. Voltron Therapeutics holds an exclusive worldwide license for the SAV technology from the VIC.

“We greatly appreciate this award and the Department of Defense’s and Congress’ commitment to leveraging platforms with unique mechanisms of action to address both known pathogens as well as emerging infectious diseases,” said Patrick J. Gallagher, chief executive officer of Voltron Therapeutics. “This program will accelerate Voltron’s optimization of the SAV platform to enable more rapid and efficient production of both the fixed and variable components of the vaccine, as well as creating a valuable infectious disease pipeline to complement our Immuno-Oncology programs.”

The award will be used to demonstrate vaccine efficacy (protective antibody and cell- mediated immunity) against two pathogens: Influenza A (RNA virus) and vaccinia (DNA virus). The Voltron team’s efforts will center on further optimization and improvement of the vaccine platform to enable accelerated and more efficient production of both SAV components for each specific disease target. The learnings from initial preclinical efficacy tests and production optimization will be applied in the design and production of a vaccine against a third pathogen in the final phase of the project.

The SAV Platform’s novel mechanism of action offers a promising solution for the U.S. military’s need for rapid development and production of vaccines at a reduced cost. It utilizes the same constant backbone for all vaccines, but with different ‘targeting warheads’ cost-effectively produced for each specific pathogen. With the SAV, ‘targeting warheads’ can potentially include different types of antigens including proteins, peptides, polysaccharides or nucleic acids. Importantly, the core immune activating component reduces regulatory risks by largely eliminating off-target inflammation inherent in standard adjuvants and using expression systems already translated to good manufacturing processes production for clinical testing.

“We are delighted with the Department of Defense’s interest in the SAV’s novel, modular approach and the potential solutions we may provide to the U.S. armed forces and the general population,” said James Ahern, Managing Partner of Laidlaw & Company and co-founder of Lucius Partners. “This funding, and the external collaboration it supports, will speed the development of cost-saving, efficacious vaccine solutions and continue to enhance shareholder value.”

About Voltron Therapeutics, Inc.
Voltron Therapeutics, Inc., a Delaware corporation, was founded in 2017 to lead and accelerate the development of the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center (VIC), and the Massachusetts General Hospital’s novel Self Assembling Vaccine technology in a variety of indications, including in Oncology and Emerging Infectious Diseases. Voltron holds an exclusive worldwide license to this technology. With the work of our world class team of researchers and development team, this technology has shown in certain pre-clinical studies initial proof of concept in two infectious diseases (including Lassa Fever) as well as two oncology indications (Ovarian and HPV Related Cancers). For more information, please visit www.voltrontx.com.

About Lucius Partners, LLC
Lucius Partners is a consultancy that provides a broad suite of services to help healthcare companies grow, achieve milestones and generate value for their shareholders.

Contact:
Patrick Gallagher, CEO
Voltron Therapeutics, Inc.
Managing Partner
Lucius Partners, LLC
pgallagher@luciuspartnersllc.com

Matthew Duffy, President
Voltron Therapeutics, Inc.
Managing Partner
Lucius Partners, LLC
mduffy@luciuspartnersllc.com

Matthew Duffy
Lucius Partners, LLC
+1 646-335-5923
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