The Cobra Biologics spinout Prokarium acquired Emergent BioSolutions’ live Salmonella-based typhoid vaccine Typhella™, and oral delivery platform spi-VEC™. Emergent has previously carried out Phase I and II clinical studies demonstrating that Typhella is safe and immunogenic as a typhoid vaccine.
Prokarium has combined the Typhella and spi-VEC technologies with its own ORT-VAC™ (Operator-Repressor Titration for Vaccines) plasmid stabilization technology to generate a salmonella-based Vaxonella™ platform for the oral delivery of recombinant protein vaccines.
The Vaxonella platform is being commercialized through licensing agreements, and Prokarium is focusing its own in-house research on the development of a dual oral vaccine candidate Typhetec™ against typhoid and ETEC (enterotoxigenic E.coli). Clinical trials with Typhetec are projected to start during 2013.
Prokarium’s ORT-VAC™ technology (Operator-Repressor Titration for Vaccines) is the only selectable marker-free plasmid stabilization technology that can function with any type of plasmid, enabling recombinant antigens to be delivered orally.