HERSHEY, Pa. and ROCKVILLE, Md., March 31, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. ("ITI"), a privately-held biotechnology company developing vaccines based on its proprietary LAMP technology, today announces that the National Institutes of Health has awarded ITI's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant application titled, "Development of Nanoplasmid LAMP-based Peanut Allergy Immunotherapy." The work in this award will help the pre-clinical development of new and advanced therapeutic platforms for peanut allergies.
"The receipt of this grant provides validation and financial support to evaluate the innovative combination of MHC-II targeting of important peanut allergens delivered in a minimal plasmid DNA backbone. With NIH's support, we look forward to designing and evaluating new plasmid-based constructs for their immunological activity and improved safety profile, which builds off of ITI's considerable expertise in plasmid-based therapeutics for food allergies. This research has the potential to help the more than one million Americans who suffer from peanut allergies," said Teri Heiland, Ph.D., Vice President of R&D, ITI.
About Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc.
Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI) is a Hershey, PA-based, privately held, clinical stage biotechnology company developing vaccines based on the LAMP technology platform, which was exclusively licensed from Johns Hopkins University. The LAMP-vax vaccine platform aims to increase the immune response to nucleic acid vaccines and simplify vaccine design and delivery for safer, more cost-effective therapies. ITI's LAMP constructs have been validated in human clinical trials for cancer and have been studied in areas including allergy and infectious disease, while internally ITI is focused on developing allergy therapies Currently, the company is pursuing three main allergy programs:
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ASP 4070 (Formerly known as JRC-LAMP-vax) - Japanese Red Cedar Vaccine - An innovative potential solution for the over 35 million sufferers of Japanese red cedar pollinosis - Phase I, currently partnered with Astellas Pharma;
- An analogous vaccine formulation will be developed as a vaccine to treat Mountain Cedar in the US.
- ARA-LAMP-vax Peanut Allergy Vaccine - A therapeutic vaccine in development, with a goal of mitigating peanut allergy - Beginning Phase I in late 2015/early 2016;
- Multi Allergen Vaccines (Product Concepts) - Allergy vaccine formulation concepts that would aim to address the major categories of allergies of concern Worldwide - Under study & development.
For more information about ITI and LAMP Technology, please visit www.immunomix.com.