PARIS, Oct. 12, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NEOVACS (Alternext Paris:ALNEV) (PEA-PME eligible), a leader in active immunotherapies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, today announced a collaboration with Doctor Agnès Lehuen and Professor Christian Boitard , who are leading the laboratory for Research in Immunology of Diabetes at the Reputed Hospital Cochin in Paris. The goal of this collaboration is to achieve proof of concept for the use of Neovacs’ IFNa Kinoid in the treatment of Type 1 diabetes.
As part of this collaboration, Doctor Lehuen and Professor Boitard’s teams will jointly conduct research with scientists from Neovacs on INFa Kinoid in NOD models (Non-Obese Diabetic mice - the most relevant mouse model for this disorder). Existing scientific publications offer a significant body of evidence to support the involvement of IFNa in Type 1 diabetes 1 . This preclinical study aims to determine whether the use of the IFNa Kinoid vaccine can control this disorder by producing polyclonal neutralizing antibodies to Interferon alpha.
Neovacs has already demonstrated in a Phase I /II study in lupus that anti-interferon antibodies have a biological activity capable of neutralizing the IFN signature, with a long-term positive effect 2 . The same principle could be applied in Type 1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune disease also having an IFNa signature as observed in Lupus, and characterized by an overexpression of this cytokine (IFN alpha).
According to Miguel Sieler, CEO of Neovacs: "This collaboration confirms the interest in our technology and its potential. It also supports our confidence in the development of therapeutic vaccines, especially with our INFa kinoid. We are very pleased to work with the Cochin Hospital teams in the Department Immunology of Diabetes. It is urgent to address the unmet medical needs associated with Type 1 diabetes, and we believe that our technology has the potential to meet the expectations of the scientific community in this field. We are confident that this collaboration will produce actionable results and will provide important answers about developing a targeted treatment for Type 1 diabetes, responding to the concerns of patients."
Dr. Agnes Lehuen and Professor Christian Boitard also explained: "This collaboration with Neovacs fits perfectly into our research focus. Indeed, faced with the rapid increase in patients affected by Type 1 diabetes, we need to find innovative ways to treat this disease and Neovacs’ approach is particularly interesting. "
1 Cf. Publications scientifiques : Meyer et al., 2016, Cell 166, 582–595, July 28, 2016 Ferreira et al., Diabetes Volume 63, July 2014 Diana et al., Nature Medicine Volume 19, January 2013
2 Cf. Ducreux et al., al 2016 Rheumatology_in press et Lauwerys et al., Down-regulation of interferon signature in systemic lupus erythematosus patients by active immunization with interferon a-kinoid. Arthritis Rheum (2013), 65(2):447-456
About Diabetes Diabetes is a disease that affects, according to WHO**, 422 million people worldwide, including 4 million in France and a rapid progression that could include 622 million patients by 2040. Notably, 10% of these patients have the auto immune form of type 1 diabetes.
** Source: World Report on Diabetes, published by WHO, April 2016
About Neovacs Created in 1993, Neovacs is today a leading biotechnology company focused on an active immunotherapy technology platform (Kinoids) with applications in autoimmune and/or inflammatory diseases. On the basis of the company’s proprietary technology for inducing a polyclonal immune response (covered by five patent families that potentially run until 2032) Neovacs is focusing its clinical development efforts on IFNα-Kinoid, an immunotherapy being developed for the indication of lupus. Neovacs is also conducting preclinical development works on other therapeutic vaccines in the fields of auto-immune diseases, oncology and allergies. The goal of the Kinoid approach is to enable patients to have access to safe treatments with efficacy that is sustained in these life-long diseases.
For more information on Neovacs, please visit www.neovacs.fr .
Contacts NEOVACS Charlène Masson +33 (0)1 53 10 93 00 cmasson@neovacs.com Investor Relations – Financial Communications Germany – MC Services Raimund Gabriel +49-89-210228-30 raimund.gabriel@mc-services.eu Press/U.S. Inquiries – The Ruth Group Lee Roth/Joseph Green +1-646-536-7012 / 7013 lroth@theruthgroup.com / jgreen@theruthgroup.com
