HLB Acquired Immunomic, Begins Development of COVID-19 Vaccine

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] HL Biopharma announced on the 17th that Immunomic Therapeutics (hereinafter Immunomic), a U.S. new drug development company acquired by HL Biopharma, has started developing a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine in collaboration with multiple pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the United States.

An HL Biopharma official stated, "Immunomic's immune vaccine platform technology, UNITE (Universal Intracellular Targeted Expression), has been highlighted as an optimized technology for COVID-19 therapeutic vaccine development, leading to joint vaccine development proposals from numerous local biotech companies," adding, "We have decided to apply the platform technology for COVID vaccine development."

Professor Tom August of Johns Hopkins University, who developed the core technology of UNITE, has published a paper demonstrating that UNITE is effective in enhancing immune responses against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

An Immunomic representative said, "Since the standby funds for COVID-19 vaccine development in the U.S. are continuously increasing, there is a possibility that Immunomic Therapeutics will initiate COVID-19 vaccine development with U.S. government grants."

Immunomic is a Maryland-based U.S. biotech company established in 2006, possessing immune therapy platform technology. UNITE is a powerful next-generation vaccine platform technology that targets specific antigens to lysosomes to enhance antigen presentation capability, thereby strengthening T cell functions and being used in immune therapies for cancer, allergies, and more.

In 2018, Immunomic was selected as the best company together with Astellas at the World Vaccine Congress. The World Vaccine Congress is recognized as the most prestigious authority in the vaccine field, similar to ASCO and ESMO, which are leading conferences in the cancer field.

Ji Hyukju, Executive Director of HL Biopharma, said, "Immunomic's immune vaccine platform technology is optimized for highly mutating viruses," and added, "We hope that Immunomic's outstanding vaccine platform technology will be properly utilized for vaccine development for everyone."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.