Poolbeg Pharma (POLB ), a clinical-stage biopharma company focused on infectious diseases, updated markets on its Oral Vaccine Programme.
In November 2022, the Poolbeg-led EncOVac consortium was awarded €2.3m funding by the Irish Government's Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund to progress the Oral Vaccine Programme. Having finalised the research plan, the EncOVac parties are now entering the next phase to commence the validation of the encapsulation process. The validation is expected to complete in H2 2023.
The goal of the EncOVac consortium is to develop a Phase I clinical trial-ready oral vaccine candidate within a 3-year window. The agreed research plan comprises several stages. Once the key encapsulation process, developed by AnaBio Technologies, has been successfully validated, the consortium can proceed to encapsulate vaccine antigen candidates developed at University College Dublin.
The oral vaccine candidate will then complete all required non-clinical testing in preparation for a Phase I clinical trial.
Poolbeg's oral vaccine programme represents a significant commercial opportunity as it will be able to generate vaccines for a wide range of diseases. The platform has the potential to be licensed to partners or developed internally within Poolbeg, positioning the company to help tackle a broad range of infectious diseases.
Oral vaccines have the potential to revolutionise the fight against infectious disease. "In contrast to intramuscular vaccines that generate systemic immunity, oral vaccines induce mucosal immunity, which can induce better protection against pathogens at the site of infection." explains Dr. Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg.
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