Combination adjuvants available for license

Licensing Opportunity

Alistair Noble from the MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma at King’s College London, has developed a more effective combination adjuvant using single adjuvants that are known to safe to use in humans.

The new adjuvant, known as CASAC has been shown to be much more effective at  treating melanoma than other cancer vaccines in development in an animal model, but the researchers say the  technology could be applied to vaccines against a wide range of other diseases.

Noble said, “Our discovery makes it possible to induce unprecedented levels of CD8 T cells, the killer cells which are vital for eradicating tumours and infections without harming healthy tissue, and for making vaccines work for many years at a time. We

hope that the industry will make use of this new technology in a wide range of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines.”

Vaccines containing CASAC were effective over long periods of time. It was found that the new adjuvant was around 100 times more potent than existing alternatives and was shown to eradicate growing tumours in animal models when combined with a tumour-derived peptide.

The technology has been patented and is available for license. Hanane Gouizi, Technology Transfer Manager at King’s Business, comments, “This new technology allows for flexible and rapid vaccine development. Our aim is to identify a suitable partner to take this technology forward for use in clinical and/or veterinary settings.”