GlycoSyn part of cancer vaccine collaboration

Based in Wellington, the collaboration brings a vaccine developed by the Malaghan Institute together with an adjuvant, a compound developed by IRL that increases the efficacy of the vaccine.

A vaccine stimulates the immune system to fight a disease by introducing a foreign organism. The adjuvant enhances the body's response by helping the T-cells find the vaccine. Hence the vaccine becomes much more efficient and much more likely to work.

In this case, the vaccine would be injected into a cancer patient's tumour to assist the patient's natural defences and rid itself of the disease.

Dr Graham le Gros, the Malaghan Institute's director says “the key to fighting illness lies in harnessing the immune system – the body's natural defence against disease.

“This project offers us the opportunity to apply our immunology and oncology expertise with other organisations to develop a commercial vaccine."

“There is an unmet need for such vaccine products and we hope our teams can crack it by working together to get it into the clinics.”

IRL Chief Executive, Shaun Coffey says the partnership provides ongoing investment to build on the strengths of the company's world-class carbohydrate chemistry team.

“The work on vaccine adjuvants has grown out of IRL's expertise in developing carbohydrate materials that deliver active drugs more efficiently within the body and can treat some of our most serious diseases such as cancers and auto-immune diseases.”

“By bringing both the science and the business expertise together, this partnership will allow us to do as much of this vaccine development as possible here within New Zealand and so ensure this country gets a share of any economic benefits,” he says.

The collaboration is the result of Victoria Link recognising the health and commercial potential for IRL's and Malaghan's newly developed products to be combined into a vaccine technology.

“Collaborating accelerates the building of new biomedical technology and is essential for New Zealand's competitiveness and capability building,” said Mark Ahn, Professor and Chair, Science and Technology Entrepreneurship, who coordinated the formation of the joint research programme.

“We're bringing together immunology, chemistry and entrepreneurship and each partner has a unique expertise.” The commercial potential is considerable with the international vaccine market estimated at US$12 billion and has enabled the project by attracting additional funding. Victoria Link is facilitating the commercial side of the project. “We're turning science ideas into high-growth businesses,” said John Errington, CEO of Victoria Link. “At the same time, our project partners are proving a principle and developing a platform technology that can be used for other diseases.”

“The commercial potential from this project is massive, and it's the unique collaboration of Wellington organisations that's making it happen.”

Nigel Kirkpatrick, CEO of Grow Wellington believes that building biotechnology capabilities is critical to Wellington's economic growth and sustainability.

“This project demonstrates that Wellington has the right people and resources in place to develop and manufacture world-class biotechnology,” he says.

The scope of the project is for the early stage of work, testing that the technology is safe and effective, and to prove the science is a viable approach to cancer theory. In 2009, IRL business unit, GlycoSyn irl will undertake development and scale-up work on the adjuvant.

The project team will investigate the viability of the vaccine and manufacture it. The product will then be licensed to a pharmaceutical company for clinical trials.

The project is funded by IRL Victoria Link and Grow Wellington until 2011.