Eveliqure Announces the Initiation of a Phase 1 Clinical Study of Its Combined Shigella and ETEC Vaccine Candidate
ShigETEC is an orally administered vaccine candidate targeting Shigella and Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), two of the major pathogens responsible for diarrhoeal diseases in travelers to endemic countries, as well as a major threat to children living in low- and middle- income countries.
Currently no effective vaccines against these two pathogens exist and previous attempts to develop vaccines against Shigella and ETEC have failed. Eveliqure has employed a radically innovative approach based on a live attenuated Shigella vaccine strain rationally designed to provide broad, serotype independent protection against both Shigella and ETEC, and is developing the vaccine for both travelers to endemic countries and for children living in resource-poor countries. Following this initial Phase 1 study run in Hungary, further clinical development of ShigETEC will include Phase 1 testing in non-endemic adults, immune characterization of vaccine responses, vaccine formulation studies and clinical testing of ShigETEC in the pediatric population in resource poor-countries. These activities are supported by the EU-funded SHIGETECVAX international consortium of world-leading vaccine organizations - the European Vaccine Initiative, Eveliqure Biotechnologies, University of Gothenburg, icddr,b and PATH.
“Entering clinical development with ShigETEC marks a major milestone for Eveliqure, culminating from our extensive preclinical work performed over the past five years” - commented Gábor Somogyi, MD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer of Eveliqure. “We believe that ShigETEC has the potential to reduce the burden of diarrhoeal diseases for travellers, while also saving hundreds of thousands of children in endemic areas of the world”.
“Initiating the Phase 1 study for ShigETEC in adult volunteers is a crucial step towards establishing safety and immunogenicity of our vaccine candidate, and will help us define a well-tolerated, and effective schedule of dosing for our planned Phase 2 human challenge studies”. – commented Frank Malinoski MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer of Eveliqure.
Compared to single pathogen approaches, ShigETEC has the potential to have a major impact on diarrheal diseases, protecting both travelers to the developing world and children in endemic populations.
Eveliqure is an Austrian biotechnology company in Vienna that has developed a proprietary vaccine technology platform aiming at improving the quality of life for both the poor and the privileged by providing innovative medical solutions to fight diarrhoeal diseases. Eveliqure is resident at CEBINA, the Central European Biotech Incubator and Accelerator (www.cebina.eu).
The SHIGETECVAX project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 815568.
This project has also received funding from the Wellcome Trust under award number 212399/C/18/Z.
