Aston Science Exports Cancer Vaccine Technology to Chinese Company Abozen

Aston Science, a company developing cancer treatment vaccines, announced on the 23rd that it has signed an exclusive research collaboration and license agreement for candidate substances with Abogen Biosciences, a Chinese clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) drugs.

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Photo by Aston Science

This agreement entails that Abogen will exclusively develop and commercialize candidate substances derived using Aston Science's epitope discovery platform technology worldwide.

Abogen is a biopharmaceutical company developing an mRNA-based therapeutic pipeline targeting various treatment areas, including infectious diseases, tumors, and rare diseases. In September 2022, its self-developed COVID-19 preventive mRNA vaccine received emergency use authorization from Indonesia's Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM).

Through this agreement, the two companies will collaborate by having Aston Science discover epitope candidates targeting specific antigens involved in cancer immunotherapy using its machine learning-based 'Th-Vac platform' core technology. Abogen will then integrate these candidates with its mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (LNP) vaccine design engine to develop cancer treatment vaccines for the target indications. Aston Science’s Th-Vac platform is described as a full-cycle epitope discovery platform capable of experimental validation in modules 1 to 3, including in-vitro and in-vivo immunogenicity assessments as well as therapeutic efficacy confirmation in disease-specific animal models.

With the signing of this contract, Aston Science will receive upfront payments and milestone payments from Abogen based on program progress, as well as royalties on future net sales. However, detailed contract terms and scale will remain confidential by mutual agreement of both parties.

The epitopes being discovered by Aston Science incorporate platform technology that enhances CD4 T cell immunogenicity, thereby activating CD8 T cell immune responses. Both companies expect that cancer treatment vaccines containing these epitopes will be able to verify clinical safety and efficacy in various solid tumor diseases that show resistance to standard treatments, including immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Shin Heon-woo, CEO of Aston Science, stated, “We are very pleased to join forces in developing innovative cancer treatment vaccines through the proprietary platform technologies held by both companies. We look forward to further strengthening our collaboration with Abogen, a global leader in mRNA design and delivery systems.”

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