Jan 11, 2010
Immunovaccine is working with global partners to find new ways to use its delivery system
Halifax-based company Immunovaccine Inc. has found success performing medical research with the use of a small-animal MRI, a medical scanning device designed for mice and rats. One of the secrets to the company’s success is that it’s based in Halifax, where one of only two small-animal MRIs in Canada is located.
Immunovaccine, which recently listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange’s Venture Exchange (TSX-V:IMV), has pioneered a delivery system for vaccines so in the future people with serious illnesses will only need to get one shot rather than a series of jabs over a period of time. The company will soon be seeking Phase I approval in the U.S. for its vaccine DPX-0907, which it hopes will be used to treat prostate, breast, and ovarian cancers.
The research on the drug began in the early 1990s, when a Dalhousie University team led by the late Warwick Kimmins used early versions to administer birth control to seals on Sable Island. Kimmins, Bill Pohajdak, Robert Brown, and Brian Lowe went on to form ImmunoVaccine Technologies (it later became Immuovaccine Inc.), which developed the vaccine-delivery system at its laboratories on the Halifax waterfront.
The research team, headed by Marc Mansour, the company’s vice-president of R&D, has taken the main compound through two upgrades and is now working with Depovax, its most stable and easiest-to-use formulation yet. Depovax is a “dry” product that has a shelf life of more than 18 months; that means once it’s manufactured, Depovax can be shipped to wholesalers and hospitals and remain on their shelves for a few months until it’s needed.
“Immunovaccine’s research team has successfully bridged the academic/biotechnology divide through moving technology from the university into the marketplace,” says Scott Halperin, the director of the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology at Dalhousie University. “The scientists continue to work collaboratively with university scientists to explore the potential for their vaccine-delivery platform.”
Mansour and his 12 lab employees have conducted their research with partners in Halifax and abroad, including lab facilities at Dalhousie and the National Research Council NRC). They have tapped into the resources of the NRC’s Halifax-based Institute of Biodiagnostics Atlantic, which houses the small-animal MRI; this has proven to be a valuable tool for a company working to eradicate cancer tumours. The research involvesinjecting the vaccine into a rodent with cancer, then monitoring the regression of its tumour. The use of the MRI means the researchers can monitor the live animal in real time over the course of the study.
Immunovaccine is working with other collaborators to continue its research. In October it formed a partnership with the Department of National Defence to research an anthrax vaccine, so at-risk soldiers on tours of Afghanistan would need only one or two shots to protect them from anthrax rather than the six they currently receive. The list of other partners includes Yokohama City University in Japan, Scancell Ltd. in England, and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in California.
The main benefit of such partnerships is that Immunovaccine is working with leading researchers to find and perfect new ways to use its delivery system; it’s also an effective way to spread the word about its vaccine technology. “The more hands it gets into,” says Mansour, “the more awareness there is on how it works.” — PETER MOREIRA
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Copyright © Progress Magazine December 2009