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VIR Biotechnology – has high probability of being the 3rd party biotech company that Cytodyn has entered into a joint development agreement with to develop one or more longer acting molecules targeting CCR5. There are multiple links linking Scott Hansen, other prominent OSHU scientists, OSHU itself and VIR Biotechnology.
10q: April 10, 2023
“In March 2023, as part of its conveyed long-term development and value creation initiatives, the Company made efforts to pursue the continued development of a longer-acting agent. In furtherance of this initiative, the Company entered into a joint development agreement with a third-party company to develop one or more longer-acting molecules. In addition to potentially leading to a modified therapeutic that will have greater acceptance by patients, the services provided by the third party may yield extended intellectual property protection, thereby increasing the value of the Company’s patent portfolio.”
Investor Update: April 11, 2023
Cyrus Arman:
12:56: Additionally, we have also formally established Dr. Scott Hansen as our Head of Research and Basic Science. Dr. Hansen is currently an Associate Professor at OHSU. and within this newly formalized role, Dr. Hansen will support our clinical development activities, related to biomarker and assay development for future clinical trials, as well as supporting and leading some of our earlier stage efforts, geared towards the development of longer acting molecules targeting CCR5.
13:33: As a part of those efforts, we have also recently entered into a joint development agreement with a 3rd party Research and Development Biotech company to develop one or more longer acting molecules targeting CCR5. So, in addition to potentially leading to an improved or modified therapeutic, that, we believe that would have greater acceptance by both patients and physicians and this could help to yield extended intellectual property section that would increase the underlying value of our patent portfolio.
1. https://news.ohsu.edu/2017/01/25/vaccine-tech...ry-leaders
Excerpts:
A first-of-its-kind vaccine technology platform developed by renowned scientists at OHSU in Portland, Oregon, has been acquired by Vir Biotechnology, a San Francisco-based biotech startup backed by leading industry investor ARCH Venture Partners and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a leading funder of global health initiatives.
The vaccine platform is the brainchild of a team of scientists at the OHSU Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, or VGTI, including Jay Nelson, Ph.D.; Klaus Frueh, Ph.D.; Scott Hansen, Ph.D.; and Louis J. Picker, M.D. The acquisition, which includes a merger with the OHSU startup TomegaVax Inc., is a critical step in translating a basic science concept pioneered at OHSU into a portfolio of commercial vaccines that have the potential to protect against and cure some of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, including HIV, malaria, hepatitis B, papillomavirus and tuberculosis.
The vaccine platform is based on a unique model that uses the common herpes virus cytomegalovirus, or CMV, as the viral vaccine vector to deliver a knock-out blow to the various pathogens.
Research at VGTI was first made possible through a state-funded Oregon Opportunity Grant. The research has since been funded primarily through grants from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has committed $46 million in grants to support Picker’s work at VGTI.
Both Picker and Frueh will serve as scientific advisors to Vir, and Frueh will serve on the Vir board of directors. As part of the acquisition, OHSU holds equity in Vir, which is expected to announce an initial public offering within the next few years should the vaccines prove successful in human clinical trials. Frueh, Picker and colleagues will continue their basic science research at OHSU, with the goal of fine-tuning the vaccine technology in their pre-clinical work.
Vir is adopting a broad technological portfolio, including the viral vectors obtained through the acquisition of TomegaVax, Inc. to create cures and treatments for emerging diseases, deadly viruses and drug-resistant bacteria using immune programming. ARCH Venture Partners, whose co-founder Robert Nelsen conceived and led the formation of Vir, has committed to invest up to $150 million.
2. https://news.ohsu.edu/2021/03/25/hiv-vaccine-...ears-later
“OHSU and several individuals have a significant financial interest in Vir Biotechnology Inc., a company that may have a commercial interest in the results of this research and technology. These individuals include Picker, Frueh, Sacha, Malouli, Hansenand Hancock.”
3. Scott Hansen received compensation from VIR Biotechnology which he was required to report: https://projects.propublica.org/dollars-for-p...n-nih-4080
4. Vir Biotechnology 10k: https://investors.vir.bio/node/10076/html
Symbol on NASDAQ: VIR
“Enabling global access to our future medicines. We have established relationships with organizations seeking to make a global impact like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, BARDA, the NIH, and the NHS to further enable and facilitate access to our future medicines and to support our clinical development efforts. We will continue to pursue additional relationships like these moving forward.”
VIR cash: As of December 31, 2022, we had cash, cash equivalents and investments of $2.4 billion.
VIR debt: We had no debt outstanding as of December 31, 2022.
Master Exclusive License Agreement with OHSU
5. Founding of VIR:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vir-...86841.html
“Lead investors include ARCH Venture Partners and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and will be joined by others including sovereign wealth funds, public mutual funds and prominent individuals and family offices. ARCH Venture Partners, whose co-founder Robert Nelsen conceived and led the formation of Vir, has itself committed to invest $150 million.”
“The founders of Vir Biotechnology sought to create a new kind of immunology company that could leverage the power of monoclonal antibodies to develop new treatments for infectious diseases. They believed that monoclonal antibodies had the potential to be a highly effective tool in the fight against infectious diseases, and that the technology was underutilized in the development of new therapies.”
“Vir Biotechnology has a research collaboration agreement with OHSU's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute (VGTI) that allows the two organizations to work together to develop new therapies and vaccines for infectious diseases. Under this agreement, Vir Biotechnology has access to VGTI's expertise and research capabilities, while VGTI benefits from Vir Biotechnology's resources and expertise in the development of monoclonal antibodies.”
6. About: https://www.vir.bio/about/
“We were founded with the mission of creating a world without infectious disease.
We are a commercial-stage immunology company focused on combining immunologic insights with cutting-edge technologies to treat and prevent serious infectious diseases. Infectious diseases are one of the leading causes of death worldwide and the cause of hundreds of billions of dollars of economic burden each year. We believe that now is the time to apply the recent and remarkable advances in immunology to combat infectious diseases. Our approach begins with identifying the limitations of the immune system in combating a particular pathogen, the vulnerabilities of that pathogen and the reasons why previous approaches have failed. We then bring to bear powerful technologies that we believe, individually or in combination, will lead to effective therapies.” Ex