N4 Pharma Plc (LON:N4P), the specialist pharmaceutical company developing Nuvec®, a novel delivery system for cancer treatments and vaccines, has provided the following update on its ongoing research collaboration agreement with Nanomerics Limited.
As announced on 11 February 2020, the Company initiated the first phase of research to test the stability of different formulations of Nuvec® loaded with a well characterised plasmid DNA. The Company is pleased to report that, in addition to not degrading the plasmid DNA, which it announced on 5 November 2020, Nuvec® formulations that had been freeze dried and then stored for 14 days either at room temperature or at four degrees Celsius, showed no significant drop in in vitro transfection capability following reconstitution compared to fresh formulations.
In parallel to continued work on analysing stability duration, different formulations will now be chosen to move forward into phase two of the work programme testing the efficacy of the dried and reconstituted plasmid DNA in an in vivo antibody generation model.
Nigel Theobald, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented:
“Demonstrating that Nuvec® loaded with a plasmid DNA can be dried, stored at convenient temperatures and reconstituted without any drop in transfection is a significant step forward in our formulation development work.
“The recent success of Pfizer and Moderna with an mRNA Covid-19 vaccine shows the potential for nucleic acid vaccines. However, it also highlights that these vaccines have certain limitations, in that they often require extreme storage conditions.
“Although vaccine efficacy is predominantly determined by the selected nucleic acid antigen, having a stable, easy to store and easy to use vaccine is crucial in helping vaccine acceptance and uptake. A formulation stable at room temperature or even refrigerated can represent significant cost savings in vaccine transportation, storage and administration. We believe, to the extent that Nuvec® as a delivery platform can provide a solution in this area, it could be of significant interest to multiple vaccine developers.
“Work will continue in this area and will add to the breadth of proof of concept data we are building for the use of Nuvec® as a delivery system for vaccines and cancer treatments.”
