Swiss startup LimmaTech licenses GSK vaccine, hires ex-CureVac chief as CEO
20 Jul 2023
VaccinePhase 3Executive ChangeLicense out/inAcquisition
Dive Brief:
Privately held LimmaTech Biologics on Thursday named a new CEO and reclaimed rights to a vaccine originally developed by its predecessor company through a licensing agreement with GlaxoSmithKline.
GSK acquired the experimental vaccine for shigellosis when it bought GlycoVaxyn in 2015. LimmaTech was then spun out from the original company, though it continued to work on the shigellosis vaccine with GSK and the Wellcome Trust.
Dive Insight:
With results due from the shigellosis vaccine this year, LimmaTech opted to bring in industry veteran Franz-Werner Haas to lead the company. Most recently, Haas was CEO of CureVac, which for a time looked positioned to bring a competitive COVID-19 vaccineCOVID-19 vaccine to the market along with GSK, only to falter in clinical trials. Haas announced plans to step down as CEO in January.
In a statement Thursday, Haas said LimmaTech “is poised to achieve several important near-term milestones.” In addition to the shigellosis vaccine, the company has a Phase 1/2 trial underway of a vaccine designed to prevent Klebsiella infections. LimmaTech is also working with GSK on that inoculation.
Caused by the Shigella bacteria, shigellosis leads to potentially lethal diarrhea and is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths per year, especially in lower-income countries. There is currently no approved vaccine, though a Chinese company is testing one in a Phase 3 trial, according to the World Health Organization’s database.
The WHO says development of a vaccine for shigellosis is a high priority, especially because of the growing problem of antibacterial resistance. LimmaTech’s candidate is a so-called multivalent vaccine that targets four prominent bacterial strains of Shigella. Researchers are testing its effectiveness in children and infants in Kenya.
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