Evaxion Biotech strives to develop new therapies to save and improve lives. The company uses artificial intelligence (AI) to develop targeted immunotherapies, including precision cancer vaccines and vaccines against infectious diseases.
The core of Evaxion's development strategy is AI-Immunology, the company's proprietary AI platform for AI target discovery and development. Through this technology, Evaxion has already developed two cancer vaccine candidates that are in clinical development, EVX-01 and EVX-02. Read more here.
Aiming for a new business strategy
In September 2023, Evaxion's board recruited Christian Kanstrup as new CEO to accelerate the company's development and to better utilize the strong foundation in AI technology. The recruitment was specifically aimed at accelerating the strategic development and execution of business opportunities in Evaxion.
According to Kanstrup, who visited BioStock Studio in December to discuss the company's business strategy, Evaxion will focus on value creation through a business model with three main pillars, with the AI-Immunology platform at the core. The three pillars are Targets, Pipeline and Responders – which positions the company for partnership. Read more here.
Partnership with MSD
Shortly after Kanstrup was appointed as the new CEO, Evaxion announced two new major collaborations. One with Afrigen Biologics, which aims to develop a prophylactic vaccine against gonorrhea. The second collaboration is with a large, at the time undisclosed pharmaceutical company, for the development of a new vaccine to protect against an unspecified bacterial pathogen.
Last week it became clear that the collaboration is MSD (Merck & Co.)The two companies have joined forces to work on a new project, called EVX-B3The project involves using Evaxion's AI immunology platform for antigen discovery in the development of a new bacterial vaccine.
Tarit Mukhopadhyay, Vice President, Head of Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Discovery at MSD, commented on the collaboration:
»At MSD, we are exploring new ways to apply AI technologies across the discovery-development continuum. We are excited to further advance our work with the Evaxion team.«
EVX-B3 is the company's third project aimed at developing novel bacterial vaccines. The other two candidates, EVX-B1 and EVX-B2, is under development to protect against two of the most dangerous bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Neisseria Gonorrhoea.
Comments from the CEO
In the announcement of the MSD collaboration, Kanstrup mentioned that the first phases of the collaboration have been successfully completed. BioStock contacted Kanstrup to learn more.
Christian, why is MSD the most suitable partner for this type of project?
- With MSD being a world leader in vaccines, it is, of course, a very strong partner given their capabilities within vaccine development and commercialization, hence you can say it is a natural choice.
Specifically, what does MSD bring to the table in this collaboration?
– MSD brings invaluable insights into the pathogen and the associated disease to the collaboration; the company has a profound understanding of and expertise within clinical development of prophylactic vaccines. Their deep understanding enhances our collaborative efforts, complementing our expertise in vaccine target discovery and design.
You have announced that the first phase of this collaboration has been completed successfully. Can you disclose any more details about this part of the project?
- We have successfully applied our validated AI-Immunology platform and identified several druggable vaccine targets that are predicted to prevent infections from the pathogen. These AI-identified targets are currently being manufactured, and the next steps of the collaboration involve preclinical testing of these vaccine targets.
When will we learn more details about the project, including the indication being targeted?
- We will of course ensure updates on the project at relevant milestones. You should be looking at completion and hopefully an out-license agreement with MSD in less than 12 months.
Finally, how does this collaboration fit into Evaxion's refined business strategy?
- The MSD partnership is fully in line with our refined business strategy. Our three-pronged business strategy is based upon a multi-partner approach along the three pillars: Targets, Pipeline and Responders. The MSD partnership is a very good example of the type of partnerships we are pursuing within the Target pillar, aiming to discover and develop novel vaccines addressing severe unmet medical needs.