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news.French pharmaceutical firm Ipsen and US biotechnology company EpiVax have completed a collaborative project that offers a novel approach to create next generation botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) and targeted secretion inhibitor (TSI) therapeutics.
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Ipsen is developing a new platform of novel neurotoxin derived therapeutics, including TSI, to create new therapeutic opportunities for addressing several medical conditions with unmet requirements.
The program will be taken ahead by EpiVax, with possible product development for clinical use in neuromuscular health and aesthetic treatments.
EpiVax’s ISPRI T cell epitope modification technology was applied for generating an engineered BoNT sequence.
Ipsen EVP of research and development and chief scientific officer Claude Bertrand said: "This work is part of Ipsen’s commitment to apply modern protein engineering and recombinant protein expression to enable development of novel and improved botulinum neurotoxin products for increased therapeutic utility and patient care."
The worldwide biologics market, which totaled about $234bn last year, is expected to reach $386bn by the end of 2019.
EpiVax CEO Anne De Groot said: "This "stealth BoNT" program illustrates the potential to develop an entirely new product line of biologics. It capitalizes on technological advances and promises to bring better drugs, with defined mechanisms of action and well-known safety and efficacy profiles, to market."