ARTES and BioSun announce co-development for HPV vaccine

Langenfeld, Germany / Tehran, Iran  

ARTES Biotechnology and BioSun Pharmed announced to join forces for the development and manufacturing of a HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccine in Iran.

The agreed long-term collaboration involved the strength of both partners. ARTES Biotechnology GmbH (ARTES) is specialized in cell line and process development of virus like particle (VLP) based vaccines and in technology transfer for pharmaceutically relevant production processes.

BioSun Pharmed Co is involved in the manufacturing of high quality and safe vaccines and biopharmaceutical products for the domestic and international markets.

Human papilloma virus infection (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection globally. Most people are infected at some point in their lives. There are approximately 79 million men/women actively infected with the virus at any point in time. Annually, there are 14 million newly diagnosed cases of HPV. HPV infection can cause in warts or precancerous lesions. The precancerous lesions increase the risk of cancer.

In 2012, about 270,000 women died from cervical cancer, more than 85% of these deaths occurring in low and middle income countries.

“We are extremely delighted about the mutually agreed collaboration. This agreement is the next step in ARTES’ strategy to develop from a service provider for process development to a partner for full pharmaceutical product development,” Dr. Michael Piontek, founder and managing director of ARTES Biotechnology.

For the first time, ARTES will be responsible for process development of API, formulation, quality control and supply of preclinical test material. In addition, ARTES will be engaged in design of the manufacturing site at BioSun and in selection of third parties for GMP manufacturing.

“I am really pleased that after technical and commercial discussions, we could finally make collaboration agreement with a well-known and reliable partner for not only producing pre-master cell banks but also for co-developments of our mutual interested products. Our mission is producing high quality and affordable vaccines and biotech products improving health level of community.” Dr. Mohammad Taghavian, managing director of Biosun Pharmed.

Financial details of this agreement were not disclosed.

Sun Pharma & ICGEB sign exclusive deal on dengue vaccine – ARTES adds experience in VLP development and production

NEW DELHI, India I October 19, 2016

International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) and Sun Pharma today announced their new collaboration for development of a dengue vaccine, targeted against all the four serotypes of Dengue virus that cause disease in humans. ICGEB has developed a tailored recombinant virus-like-particle (VLP) based tetravalent dengue vaccine, containing host-receptor binding domain of envelope protein of all the four DENV serotypes. ICGEB has conducted pre-clinical studies over the past seven years and developed the existing Know-How and Patents for this dengue vaccine candidate.

Sun Pharma invests over US$ 300 million annually on research and development in pharmaceuticals and biologics. The Company will use its in-house expertise as well as expertise of its Associate company, ARTES Biotechnology GmbH, in development of dengue vaccine. ARTES will add their experience and proprietary know-how in production of VLP based vaccines from yeast production cell lines. Hep-B and HPV vaccines developed by ARTES are licensed to several companies worldwide and a Malaria vaccine program is sponsored by PATH (Malaria Vaccine Initiative). Taken together, the Company has past experience in development of Hep-B and Typhoid vaccines, as well as complex vaccines, such as HPV and Malaria.

 

For the full text, see: http://www.sunpharma.com/media/press-releases

ARTES and Burnet Institute join forces to develop novel hepatitis C vaccine

ARTES Biotechnology and Burnet Institute announce they have joined forces to develop a novel, effective vaccine to prevent transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV).

An HCV vaccine is urgently needed to prevent re-infection in people treated through antiviral therapies and reverse the high global mortality rates from infection-related liver cirrhosis or liver cancer, estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be more than 500,000 people each year. More than 130 million people globally are carriers of HCV, a blood-borne virus.

The innovative hepatitis C vaccine project will combine Burnets’ proprietary HepSeeVaxDelta3™ technology, developed by Associate Professor Heidi Drummer and colleagues, with ARTES’ proprietary METAVAX® technology for the development of chimeric virus-like particle (VLP) based vaccines. The project aims to develop a VLP based vaccine that efficiently presents HCV antigens to prevent hepatitis C infection. The VLPs will present the novel, modified envelope protein (E2) on its surface, thereby targeting the vaccine to dendritic cells to prime and prepare the immune system to fight against hepatitis C infection.

Deputy Head of Burnet’s Centre for Biomedical Research and HCV vaccine team leader, Associate Professor Drummer said HepSeeVaxDelta3™ technology overcomes a critical limitation to HCV vaccine development. “The virus that causes HCV has evolved to avoid the immune system so that in natural infection, key immune responses are delayed or distracted by irrelevant targets on the virus. The same is true for conventional vaccine platforms tested previously. The HepSeeVaxDelta3™ component of the vaccine redirects the immune response to make antibodies on the most important targets that prevent infection against the seven circulating HCV genotypes.”

Managing Director of ARTES, Dr Michael Piontek said his company was excited to join forces with Burnet Institute to develop a much-needed vaccine against hepatitis C, which is endemic in many countries where treatment costs are high and HCV poses a significant burden on healthcare systems. “Access to diagnosis and treatment is limited, especially in endemic countries in Africa and Asia, so there is a strong demand for a safe and low-cost vaccine to prevent hepatitis C infection. This is in-line with the aim of the WHO to realize their hepatitis C elimination targets. After out-licensing processes for hepatitis B vaccine production worldwide, ARTES is proud to take the next step together with Burnet Institute in fighting another life-threatening hepatitis infection.”

 

The vaccine development platform

ARTES’ vaccine development platform METAVAX® in combination with the expression host Hansenula polymorpha (recommended by the WHO for hepatitis B vaccine production) is the preferred tool for the development of affordable vaccines. ARTES’ development platform is a unique and very economical approach to low-cost mass production of safe and effective vaccines.

Burnet Institute’s HepSeeVaxDelta3™ technology is developed by re-engineering the major HCV viral surface protein E2 to produce the novel HepSeeVaxDelta3™ vaccine. HepSeeVaxDelta3™ can generate high levels of antibodies that can block replication of all seven genotypes of HCV in laboratory tests. This major scientific advance offers the prospect of a simple, universal vaccine to prevent HCV infection worldwide.

ARTES and Biosphere announce collaboration

ARTES Biotechnology, specialized in microbial cell line and process development for recombinant protein production and technology provider for high-quality biotechnological processes, join forces with the well-established contract manufacturing company Biosphere. Aim of this preferred cooperation is to offer a full range of services, starting from cell line generation up to industrial scale manufacturing in one package. The combination of the different expertise, know-how and infrastructure of the two companies will flow directly into one common offer. This offer addresses customers who are looking for development of enzymes and proteins currently applied in the pharmaceutical, food and fine chemical sector.

ARTES offers manufacturing of preclinical samples up to multi-gram scale

ARTES Biotechnology, specialized in microbial cell line and process development for the pharmaceutical industry recently expanded its service portfolio and supplied samples for preclinical testing to a first client.

“With the new equipped pilot plant for production of nonGMP material, we are now in the position to provide our clients with high quality preclinical test material in gram amounts”, Michael Weniger Head of Process Development at ARTES stated. “Thanks to our existing experience, installation of the plant at ARTES, implementation of a new process and supply of a batch have been managed within three months. The challenge in this kind of fast track projects is very often to meet a high quality standard”, Weniger pointed out.

 

For more detailed information and for an offer please contact us.

ARTES and Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Announce Collaboration

ARTES Biotechnology, specialized in recombinant protein production, process and vaccine development from microbial expression systems announces a collaboration with the global pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health.

ARTES’ expression system Hansenula polymorpha is the preferred technology for affordable mass vaccination and recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for these purposes. In combination with ARTES’ METAVAX® platform, this offers a new, unique and very economical approach to low-cost mass production of safe and effective vaccines required in the veterinary field.

“This collaboration is another milestone in expanding our vaccine development expertise”, Michael Piontek, managing director of ARTES stated. “We are more than confident that our technology platform is perfectly suited for the development of safe and cost efficient vaccines that are highly relevant for the veterinary market.”

“Partnering is a central part of our strategy. We are excited about this collaboration and the opportunity to develop more innovative vaccines for the animal health market,” says Rolf-Dieter Günther, Head of Global Business Development and Licensing Animal Health for Boehringer Ingelheim.

ARTES, instrAction and Q-Biologicals Join Forces for Veterinary Vaccine Development

Under the title:” development of a virus-like-particle (VLP) based vaccine platform and stable formulation especially suited for the veterinary applications”, in short “Plurivax”, the EU cooperation is part of the recent 8th EuroTransBio call and will be funded for a three year period supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Flanders (Belgium) agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT).

The intent of “Plurivax” is to develop a stable production platform and an adapted high-quality process to have an effective and usable integrated best practice suitable for several veterinary vaccines.The platform resulting from this project will be the first of its kind in veterinary application and thus opens access to a huge market. A robust, inexpensive vaccine will reduce the need for antibiotic treatment of food animals, thereby directly reducing production costs and improving quality of life for the food animal itself and for the consumer.

“ARTES VLP platform METAVAX® has already been applied to the development of adjuvant-free vaccines against different diseases like avian and swine flu, malaria and HIV. Our yeast expression host Hansenula is the preferred technology for affordable mass vaccination and is recommended by the WHO for mass vaccinations. Together, our platforms build an excellent approach to low-cost mass production of safe and effective vaccines”, Michael Piontek, Managing Director of ARTES.

Annie Van Broekhoven, CEO Q-Biologicals comments: “We will employ our know-how and expertise in the field of bioprocess development, manufacturing and formulation of recombinant antigens to develop a robust production process for VLP based vaccines. We are confident that we will succeed in shortening the process development times considerably, and in doing so drive down development costs and support rapid market introduction.”

“We will contribute our tailor made but competitively priced platform purification process to this cost sensitive production processes. Our proprietary chromatography phase technology, already being used for purification of commercial biopharmaceuticals and small molecule APIs, allows specific binding of target molecules and can be transferred to almost every chromatographic carrier substrate”, Peter Kallien, CFO of instrAction.

Malaria transmission-blocking vaccines – ARTES and Burnet announced a development project

ARTES Biotechnology and Burnet Institute have joined forces to develop a new type of malaria vaccine in a project funded by the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI).

The project will use exciting novel technology developed at the Burnet Institute. ARTES holds the international patent rights and adapted the platform to vaccine production (known as the Metavax® platform).

Purified vaccine antigens (Pfs25 and Pfs230) will be produced as virus-like particles (VLPs, a type of nano-particle) for testing in laboratory studies. The VLPs will be taken up by immune cells to prime and prepare the immune system to fight malaria.

The project will focus on strategies to produce vaccines that can block the transmission of malaria infection from mosquitoes to people, as part of a program funded by MVI.

http://www.burnet.edu.au/

Strategic cooperation between ARTES & Sun Pharma

ARTES Biotechnology has entered into a strategic collaboration with a subsidiary of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, an international specialty pharmaceutical company with a diversified product portfolio headquartered in Mumbai/India.

This step broadens ARTES’ international client base and demonstrates its ability to attract blue chip pharmaceutical companies. Under the collaboration agreement, ARTES will be responsible to deliver top-class cell lines and production processes for several pharmaceutical targets.

As part of the strategic collaboration, Sun Pharma’s subsidiary will also become a minority shareholder in ARTES.

Vaccine Emerging Markets

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