Signed an investment agreement with Campus Bio from the Clal Biotechnology Group * The company has completed raising $1.4 million and will develop through a technological platform that developed a vaccine for the CMV virus, which poses a risk to pregnant women and harms populations where the immune system is weakened
The start-up company VacciGuard announced today that it has signed an investment agreement with the Campus Bio company, which is fully owned by Clal Biotechnology. At the same time, the company announced that it completed another round of fundraising through two private investors and in total raised $1.4 million in the current fundraising round.
According to the agreement with Campus Bio, the company will develop, on the basis of its technological platform, a vaccine for the CMV virus (CYTOMEGALOVIRUS) which affects populations with a poor immune system. CMV vaccination is especially important for sensitive populations such as pregnant women, the elderly and patients who have undergone transplants.
Today there is no effective vaccine for the CMV virus and the market for its treatment is estimated at approximately 2 billion dollars.
VacciGuard was established in 2007 at the Mashgav greenhouse owned by Trendlines Group. The investors in the company are Trendlines Group, Hamma Mashgav and private investors.
Anat Eitan, CEO of VacciGuard stated, "We are happy about the agreement with Campus Bio and Kelal Biotechnology. The interest that the large holding company in the biomed field has shown in our unique platform and technology is a great expression of confidence."
VacciGuard's technology is based on a special composition of peptides derived from the HSP60 protein. Connecting these peptides to a "weak" (non-immunogenic) antigen from a bacterial or viral source creates a "strong" immunogen whose injection encourages an effective immune response and the development of antibodies for a long time. The technology was developed in the laboratory of Prof. Yaron Cohen from the Weizmann Institute of Science in collaboration with Prof. Angel Progador and Prof. Bracha Reger from Ben Gurion University. The technology was given to the company in an exclusive license agreement by Yeda and BG Negev, the implementing companies of the Weizmann Institute and Ben-Gurion University.
The company was founded and managed by Anat Eitan, who served for many years in various positions in the research and development department at Teva. In her last position there, she managed the unit for new projects. After that, she was the CEO of Metbogel (now Protelix).
One response
Simply amazing! HSP60 protein.