Lipoxen receives positive results for ImuXen candidates for influenza and malaria

Lipoxen (AIM: LPX) has received positive results for two of its ImuXen proprietary candidates, one devolped as a novel influenza vaccine and the other as a malaria vaccine. Lipoxen's proprietary ImuXen technology uses lipids, natural substances found in the human body, to entrap active ingredients - like antigens - to ensure direct delivery into the appropriate cells of the immune system.

"I am further encouraged that one of our leading technology platforms has again demonstrated its potential to underpin a new generation of vaccine products with enhanced performance characteristics”, Lipoxen chief executive Scott Maguire commented.

According to Lipoxen, ImuXen enhances the effectiveness of vaccines, by generating strong and broadly based immune responses.

In terms of ImuXen’s influenza vaccine, Lipoxen has completed initial pre-clinical development, and it has successfully developed a number of viable vaccine candidates, which it believes are likely to "induce effective immunity against influenza".

Lipoxen said it will now complete live influenza virus challenge studies using recognised and validated in vivo (‘in living/organism’) models. 

The company also emphasised that the candidates' ‘thermo-stable’ properties will also be investigated, as it is expected that they will not require refrigeration – potentially solving a significant distribution and storage issue for modern vaccines.

Separately, Lipoxen has completed the experimental phase of its malaria vaccine project, in association with PATH MVI. The company said it has delivered the formulation which utilizes Lipoxen's ImuXen technology to enhance the delivery of malaria antigens to the immune system. 

The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), established in 1999 with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is a global programme of the international non-profit organization PATH. MVI has a mandate to "accelerate the development of malaria vaccines and ensure their availability and accessibility in the developing world".

"Preclinical tests revealed that anti-malaria antibodies were increased 10 fold using the liposomal co-delivery platform compared to the antibody response to a mixture of antigen-coding DNA plus protein antigen.  In addition, malaria antigen-specific CD4+ T cells were detected," Lipoxen stated.

Lipoxen noted that whilst MVI has decided not to commit additional funding to the project, Lipoxen believes that the programme has further demonstrated the validity of the ImuXen platform, and it intends to seek a commercial partner to take this novel platform into clinical development.

The biopharmaceutical company, has three proprietary patented technology platforms. In addition to ImuXen, Lipoxen has also developed PolyXen, which is used to extend the efficacy and half life of biologic drugs, and SiRNAblate is a delivery platform for siRNA which stands for small interfering RNA,  sometimes known as short interfering RNA or silencing RNA.

Earlier this month, Lipoxen announced it has secured the necessary funding to move forward with its development programme, for its proprietary product pipeline, after conducting a successful placing to raise £1.2 million. The shares were placed at 7 pence per share compared to the stock’s yesterday’s closing price of 7.13 pence.

The company also told investors that it expects its project base to return significant license fee income going forward.