MISSOULA, Montana, October, 24, 2023 – Inimmune Corporation, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on creating and developing innovative immunotherapeutics, announced that it has entered a research collaboration with Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) to develop novel and innovative small molecule vaccine adjuvants. An adjuvant is added to some vaccines to enhance the immune response, thereby creating a stronger and longer-lasting immunity against infections than the vaccine alone.
The Precision Vaccines Program (PVP) at Boston Children’s Hospital was awarded a Vaccine Adjuvant Development Program contract (75N93023C00040) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) that can extend up to 5 years and $9 million to develop a small molecule TLR7/8 agonist adjuvant that will enhance the effectiveness of flu vaccines.
Based in the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, the PVP is an academic research program devoted to discovering and developing the next generation of vaccines tailored to vulnerable populations.
“The Precision Vaccines Program is dedicated to pioneering the next generation of vaccines tailored to safeguard the most vulnerable among us. We are building a global network to revolutionize vaccine development, and we are excited to collaborate with Inimmune to enhance adjuvants,”said Ofer Levy, MD, Ph.D., Director of the PVP.
David Dowling, Ph.D., a PVP faculty member who is joint principal investigator on the project stated: “Starting with protein-based flu vaccines, we’re laying the groundwork for an approach that holds the potential to elevate not just this platform, but also other technologies, including mRNA vaccines, in the fight against infectious diseases.”
Inimmune prioritizes research into new classes of adjuvants and immunotherapies for vaccines and stand-alone indications and has a deep pipeline of rapidly advancing programs. This past summer, Inimmune successfully advanced a candidate immunotherapy for the treatment of allergic rhinitis into Phase I clinical trials.
With this award, Inimmune will work collaboratively with Boston Children’s investigators to advance the synthesis, formulation, and pre-clinical evaluation of new adjuvants to preclinical proof-of-concept at which stage commercial collaborations will be sought for further development.
“At Inimmune, we continue to identify and develop novel and unique immunotherapeutics,” said Dr. Juhienah Khalaf, Ph.D., Director of Chemistry and sub-principal investigator on the project at Inimmune. “By leveraging the drug discovery expertise and resources of Inimmune, PVP researchers will have the opportunity to maximize the potential therapeutic value of their novel adjuvants.”