RCS - Hemogenyx Pharma Plc - Single CBR Can Treat Multiple Viruses

Hemogenyx PharmaceuticalsAnnouncement

09/01/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 0142M  Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC  09 January 2023

9 January 2023

 

RNS Reach - Non-Regulatory

 

 

Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc 

("Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals" or the "Company")

 

 

Single CBR Can Treat Multiple Viruses

 

Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc (LSE: HEMO) announces that it has made
significant progress towards the practical use of its Chimeric Bait Receptor
("CBR") platform technology, designed to program immune cells to eliminate
viral infections by destroying the viruses that cause them. The Company's
scientists have identified a target protein that can be incorporated into a
single multipurpose CBR-based therapeutic capable of treating multiple viruses
that belong to different viral families, instead of having to make a separate
CBR construct for every virus. Among them are Dengue, Ebola, Marburg, Zika and
Chikungunya. These viruses are among the most dangerous to humans, causing
serious and often fatal diseases, and for which few effective treatment
options exist.

 

Shareholders will recall that the Company has been working on cell therapies
which have shown great promise in the treatment of cancers. Using the
Company's expertise in developing cell therapies for cancer, it developed an
approach that can be used to bring cell therapy approaches to another unmet
need, the treatment of major existing and emerging viral infections, including
SARS-CoV-2. Called Chimeric Bait Receptor, the approach is a platform
technology that can be used to program the immune cells that are responsible
for innate immunity (e.g., macrophages) to eliminate viruses.

 

The Directors believe that this significant discovery of a single target
protein for use against multiple dangerous viruses is further evidence of the
potential power of the Company's CBR technology, and demonstrates the
possibility of accelerating the development of antiviral therapeutics as well
as preventing epidemics and pandemics that could be caused by a multitude of
pathogens.

 

 

Background and description of technology

 

Responding to the huge unmet need of pandemics, the Company realized that its
technology and skills developed in fighting cancer could be used for the
development of novel therapies for life-threatening existing and emerging
viral diseases. It has developed a new proprietary platform technology that is
based on harnessing the power of the immune system and has derived potential
treatments from it, starting with one that targets SARS-CoV-2, the virus that
causes COVID-19.

 

The immune system has many components, some of which, like antibodies in the
blood, are well known to lay audiences. Other aspects like T cells are less
well known, but like antibodies are very specific and, as they develop many
days or weeks after infection or vaccination, are known as "adaptive
immunity". But there are other aspects of immune protection that pre-exist
before infection, called "innate immunity". This comprises a series of
protective cells and molecules including macrophages and interferon, for
example. Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals has found a way to activate these
macrophages to kill virus infected cells and protect against the virus by
programming them with a set of novel CBRs. Additionally, we have developed
another simpler technology, Bait-Macrophage Engagers ("BMEs"), that act like
antibodies and scavenge virus particles in the blood and neutralize them. The
Company's technology utilizes synthetic biology and artificial intelligence
("AI") approaches to advance medicine to protect society from future pandemics
that may challenge the global economy, health, and national defense.

 

While the Company's first CBR-based treatment attacks one virus, SARS-CoV2,
further research has now revealed that it is possible to develop a single
treatment for several viruses that belong to different viral families,
including those listed in the opening paragraph.

 

Clinical need and how Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals is addressing it

 

The need for proactive new solutions to future infectious agents which might
cause major epidemics has become clear in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic
and especially so in the face of global threats of biological warfare. To
address this imminent threat, the Company has developed an immunotherapy
approach using cutting edge technology that could be utilized to prevent and
combat infection by any known or emerging virus, by being able to create
front-line treatments that may prevent the development of the next pandemic.
Moreover, these new therapeutic tools can be used to protect against
bio-terrorism, potentially rendering a universe of viral bio-weapons
ineffective.

 

CBR allows the development of:

(1) off-the-shelf cell therapies against infectious disease.

(2) biopharmaceuticals to eliminate any potential virus in the course of
infection or to be used as a preventive treatment.

 

Current treatments, including vaccines, neutralizing monoclonal antibodies,
and specific anti-viral drugs, are not rapidly available at the onset of an
outbreak. Additionally, both neutralizing antibodies and vaccines lack
adaptability to new variants of infectious viruses, losing their efficacy when
viruses mutate and "evade" the immune system. Indeed, these forms of therapy
increase the risk of immune evasion, in the same way that overuse of
antibiotics has led to antibiotic resistance. To overcome both the lag in
response time and major shortcomings of antibody-based treatments including
vaccines we are developing "off-the-shelf" (non-patient-specific) CBR- and
BME-based products that may be directed against any viral pathogen rapidly
after its discovery.

 

Major advantages of our CBRs and BMEs for combatting viral infections
include:

(1) the use of a "bait" makes CBRs and BMEs insensitive to mutations of the
targeted virus, preventing the development of resistance (unlike antibodies);
as long as the virus is infective and uses the same "door" to enter a cell, it
will be eliminated by CBR-based treatments. The bait resembles a handle of
the door that the virus uses to enter a cell.

(2) CBRs and BMEs are assembled from parts of naturally occurring cellular
receptors and/or engagers that are responsible for the function of immune
cells and endow the host's own immune system with the ability to destroy
invading pathogens.

(3) CBRs and BMEs are modular synthetic receptors and/or immune cell engagers
that can be reconfigured rapidly to attack almost any virus. It is important
to stress that this new technology also works in cancer, on malignant
cells. This work thus strengthens the Company's anti-cancer work, and
importantly opens up many opportunities to work with public bodies, such as
the military, the National Institutes of Health, the Biomedical Advanced
Research and Development Authority ("BARDA"), as well as other leading public
health-focused foundations.

 

Ongoing development

 

It is important to emphasise that, although our work to date has been focused
on certain viruses, in particular SARS-CoV-2, as well as on particular types
of cancer, it is in principle applicable to almost any form of virus. The
Directors believe it is likely to be of particular value in combatting
emerging or rare forms of viral infection, treating sufferers of such viruses
where effective vaccines or anti-viral drugs have not yet been developed or in
cases where they have failed to be effective. The significance and broad
applicability of this proprietary technology led the Company to file a seminal
provisional patent application for it in 2022
(https://hemogenyx.com/investors/investors/announcements/announcement/2022/1385/)
.

 

Meanwhile, the Company is conducting in vivo tests to demonstrate that CBR
could be used against infectious replicating SARS-CoV-2 virus, including its
recent dangerous variants. These tests are being conducted using a biosafety
level 3 ("BSL3") facility that belongs to a government-owned institution. BSL3
facilities are used to work with live pathogens that can cause harm to people.
It is important to note that this work has not detracted us from our primary
focus, and our CAR-T and CDX projects continue to make good progress.

 

Dr Vladislav Sandler, CEO & Co-Founder of Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals,
commented: "We are pleased now to be announcing further exciting developments
in our CBR platform. CBR is a ground-breaking new approach to treat existing
and emerging viral infections as well as potentially becoming an effective new
form of cancer treatment. On the viral front, its potential ability to treat a
very wide range of viruses give it the potential to revolutionise the
treatment of viral diseases and even to become the means of counteracting
biological warfare."

 

 

Enquiries:

 

 Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc                                   https://hemogenyx.com (https://hemogenyx.com/)
 Dr Vladislav Sandler, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder      headquarters@hemogenyx.com (mailto:headquarters@hemogenyx.com)
 Peter Redmond, Director                                         peter.redmond@hemogenyx.com (mailto:peter.redmond@hemogenyx.com)

 SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP                                  Tel: +44 (0)20 3470 0470
 Matthew Johnson, Vadim Alexandre, Adam Cowl

 Peterhouse Capital Limited                                      Tel: +44 (0)20 7469 0930
 Lucy Williams, Duncan Vasey, Charles Goodfellow

 

 

About Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc

 

Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals is a publicly traded company (LSE: HEMO)
headquartered in London, with its US operating subsidiaries, Hemogenyx
Pharmaceuticals LLC and Immugenyx LLC, located in New York City at its
state-of-the-art research facility.

 

The Company is a pre-clinical stage biopharmaceutical group developing new
medicines and treatments to treat blood and autoimmune disease and to bring
the curative power of bone marrow transplantation to a greater number of
patients suffering from otherwise incurable life-threatening diseases.
Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals is developing several distinct and complementary
product candidates, as well as platform technologies that it uses as engines
for novel product development.

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