Wyeth spends millions on new drug delivery deals
aimed at enhancing the delivery of its drugs in development.
Under the first deal Wyeth will spend up to $64.5m (€50.5m) to gain non-exclusive access to a novel injectable drug delivery technology for DNA vaccines belonging to Inovio Biomedical.
DNA vaccines have the potential to by-pass the numerous problems that plague conventional vaccines and may be better in stimulating cellular immunity necessary to fight chronic infection or diseases such as cancer, according to Inovio.
Despite this, vaccination using DNA plasmids alone, without enhanced delivery, has not been shown to reach the threshold for clinical benefit.
Inovio has developed MedPulser, an electroporation technology that opens pores in cell membranes to let in therapeutic molecules, which then close again shortly with the drug inside. This process is said to cause no damage to the cells.
In primate studies, DNA plasmid-based vaccines delivered via this electroporation method induced higher levels of antibodies and T-cell responses than those that were not, suggesting this novel delivery method has the potential to provide better protection from infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C.
The deal with Wyeth is Inovio's second with a major vaccine player for the technology - the firm entered a similar deal of an undisclosed nature with Merck & Co. back in 2004.
Last month Inovio was also given $1.1m by the US Department of Defense to use MedPulser to develop enhanced delivery methods for vaccines against bio-agents.
Wyeth's second deal of the week was a $212.5m exclusive research collaboration and license agreement with Belgian biotech firm Ablynx for the use of its nanobody technology.
Nanobody-based therapeutics are small-molecule drugs derived from naturally-occurring heavy-chain antibodies and therefore have good stability and offer the advantage of being able to be administered in a variety of ways such as by injection, orally, in sprays or creams - thus overcoming the delivery issues associated with the large molecule antibodies currently available, which can only be delivered by injection.
According to Ablynx, because of their unique structure, the use of nanobodies can also address therapeutic opportunities that are beyond the reach of conventional antibodies or their fragments, including targeting epitopes such as receptor clefts, enzyme active sites and viral canyon sites.
In addition, nanobodies are manufactured in micro-organisms which also presents a significant cost advantage in comparison to production methods for conventional antibodies, the firm said.
Under the new deal, Wyeth and Ablynx will work together to develop treatments directed at the tumor necrosis factor alpha protein and its receptors that target diseases in multiple therapeutic areas, for applications such as reducing inflammation in conditions like Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis.
