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news.Stellar Biotechnologies and Neovacs announced the formation of Neostell, a simplified stock corporation headquartered in France, to carry out the business of the companies' joint venture, previously announced on May 11, 2016, to manufacture and sell conjugated therapeutic vaccines using Stellar's Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin (KLH).
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The purpose of the new company Neostell is to produce Neovacs' Kinoid immunotherapy product candidates including IFNα-Kinoid, in clinical development for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus).
Neostell may also manufacture and sell other KLH-based immunotherapy products for third party customers worldwide. Stellar KLH is a carrier molecule used in Neovacs' Kinoid technology.
Neostell will be governed by a three-member Board of Directors. At the company's first general meeting, the following executives were appointed to the Board: Bernard Fanget, Chairman (Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development for Neovacs); Frank Oakes (President and CEO of Stellar Biotechnologies); and Miguel Sieler (CEO of Neovacs). Olivier Dhellin was appointed as CEO of Neovacs.
"This joint venture demonstrates Stellar's commitment to ensuring that immunotherapy developers like Neovacs have both ample supply of high-quality KLH as well as the infrastructure and expertise to manufacture their KLH-based immunotherapies as they advance to market," said Frank Oakes, President, CEO and Chairman of Stellar Biotechnologies, Inc.
"With the Neostell corporation in place and its leadership appointed, we look forward to putting operational teams together to map out the next-steps for this growth initiative."
Bernard Fanget, Chairman of Neostell, said, "The Neostell corporation will first focus on the production scale-up of Neovacs' IFNα-Kinoid immunotherapy in anticipation of a Korean market launch, as well as the planned Phase III trial for the treatment of lupus and the Phase IIa study in dermatomyositis.
"My objectives as Chairman are to make Neostell operational, to effectively access the conjugated vaccines development market and to ultimately support the CEO to develop Neostell into a profitable business."