The Vaccine Group: strong COVID-19 progress

RNS

AIM: FIPP

23 June 2020

Frontier IP Group Plc

("Frontier IP" or the "Group")

Portfolio news - major step forward for The Vaccine Group's COVID-19 animal vaccine development

Frontier IP, a specialist in commercialising intellectual property, notes today's announcement below from portfolio company The Vaccine Group ("TVG" or the "Company") relating to the significant progress made in developing animal vaccines based on its novel technology to tackle COVID-19.

Two of the Company's vaccine candidates have enjoyed success in in vitro, pre-animal trial laboratory testing. Following this important milestone, TVG is now preparing to test the two vaccine candidates in animals. Two further vaccine candidates are also under development.  The Company is also investigating the longer-term potential for human vaccines.

The milestone was reached within eight weeks of the Company receiving antigen protein sequences. Frontier IP holds a 17 per cent equity stake in TVG, which raised £680,000 in January this year. Along with its international partners, it has been awarded more than £9 million in grant funding from the UK, US and Chinese governments for work on a range of non-COVID-19 animal vaccines.

The overall progress made by TVG during the past year is likely to result in a material valuation uplift in the holding of TVG in the Group's audited results to 30 June 2020. The Group's book value of TVG as at 30 June 2019 was £1.6 million, which was reflected in the valuation of the fundraising completed in January 2020.

Frontier IP Chief Executive Officer Neil Crabb said: "Vaccinating animals is a proven way to stop diseases from jumping one species to another and spilling over to humans. It has taken TVG just eight weeks to reach its first major milestone in developing vaccines to combat COVID-19 in animals, and we are optimistic the Company will continue to make strong progress."

The Vaccine Group statement is set out in full below:

The Vaccine Group takes major step forward in developing COVID-19 vaccines

The Vaccine Group ("TVG") today announces the first two of its vaccine candidates to tackle COVID-19 in animals has taken a major step forward with success in in vitro, pre-animal trial laboratory testing. After demonstrating in vitro expression of antigens belonging to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, TVG is now preparing to test the two vaccine candidates in animals.

It is the first important milestone reached by TVG in using its novel vaccine technology as a platform to develop a number of animal vaccines to target SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses. Success generating the first vaccine candidate was reached within eight weeks of the company first receiving antigen protein sequences.

TVG's initial aim is to develop vaccines for use in animals to prevent SARS-CoV-2 and its related coronaviruses from emerging or re-emerging from animal populations into humans and other animals. The Company is also investigating the longer-term potential for human vaccines and the proposed animal trials will also be valuable in assessing the technology's safety and efficacy for use in humans.

In vitro expression of the SARS-CoV-2 antigens demonstrates that two antigens (called S and S1) have been successfully incorporated into TVG's vaccine platform. It is expected that the vaccines should stimulate an immune response against these proteins following vaccination of target animals.

The vaccine candidates are two of four SARS-CoV-2 vaccines currently under development as TVG continues to develop the remaining two vaccines in the pipeline. A range of candidate vaccines, besides those targeting S and S1 allows the Company to test a variety of SARS-CoV-2 antigens and strategies to stimulate effective immunity. This is important as it is still unclear which approaches to creating effective and durable immunity will work in practice in both animals and humans.

TVG anticipates that initial expression data on the two remaining candidates (expressing SARS-CoV-2 proteins called M and N) will be obtained over the coming weeks. Work is now underway preparing stocks of the S and S1 expressing candidates for animal trials.

Vaccinating animals offers the potential to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 in existing animal sources and prevent new reservoirs developing that may lead to future spillover into humans and a re-emergence of COVID-19. For example, to ensure that cats, which have already been shown to become infected with SARS-CoV-2, and other pets do not become reservoirs for future outbreaks.

The strong progress on the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines mirrors the progress the Company has been enjoying with its other vaccines. In March this year the Company announced work on a bovine mastitis vaccine had revealed significant potential for new intellectual property and demonstrated the technology's ability to deliver strong, targeted immune responses.

TVG also said vaccines to combat bovine tuberculosis and African swine fever virus were ready for initial animal trials once testing facilities become available and US-government backed work on Ebola and Lassa fever virus vaccines was proceeding well.

The University of Plymouth spin out and its international partners have so far been awarded more than £9 million in grant funding from US, UK and Chinese governments. It is developing vaccines based on benign forms of herpesviruses, a group of viruses found in all animals, including humans. The vaccines are created by inserting a non-infectious region of DNA from the pathogen being targeted into the herpesvirus. This vaccine then stimulates an immune response when delivered into animals.

Other projects underway include developing a vaccine against Streptococcus suis, a disease in pigs which can be fatal in humans. This has so far produced two vaccine candidates for further testing. The project is funded by the UK Department of Health and Social Care and the Chinese government. Other partners in the project include the Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute and Chinese vaccine manufacturer Pulike Biological Engineering Company.

TVG Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Associate Professor Dr Michael Jarvis, said: "Like all other human coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 emerged originally from animals. There have already been a number of reported cases of human to animal transmissions of the virus and recently what appears to be the first evidence of animal to human transmission from mink.

"Although not from animal sources, the recent re-emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in Beijing underlines the importance of being able to control this virus for the long-term. The ability to control SARS-CoV-2 and prevent COVID-19 re-emerging from animal populations might become a key tool in the fight against this pandemic.

"Our vaccine platform appears able to induce immunity at sites where SARS-CoV-2 replicates. Whilst we are initially testing the efficacy of our vaccines in animals, positive data could open up the possibility of rapidly moving to a human vaccine."

Frontier IP Chief Commercialisation Officer Matthew White said: "It is impressive to see the speed with which the team has developed these vaccine candidates. Based on previous work with the same vaccine delivery platform we are hopeful that animal trials will demonstrate positive results."

The Vaccine Group statement ends.

ENQUIRIES

ABOUT FRONTIER IP

Frontier IP unites science and commerce by identifying strong intellectual property and accelerating its development through a range of commercialisation services. A critical part of the Group's work is involving relevant industry partners at an early stage of development to ensure technology meets real world demands and needs.

The Group looks to build and grow a portfolio of equity stakes and licence income by taking an active involvement in spin-out companies, including support for fund raising and collaboration with relevant industry partners at an early stage of development.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH

The University of Plymouth is renowned for high quality, internationally-leading education, research and innovation.

With a mission to Advance Knowledge and Transform Lives, Plymouth is a *top 50 research university with clusters of world class research across a wide range of disciplines including marine science and engineering, medicine, cybersecurity and psychology. A three-time winner of the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education, most recently in 2020 in respect of its pioneering research on microplastics pollution in the oceans and its impact on the environment and changing behaviour, the University continues to grow in stature and reputation.

It has a strong track record for teaching and learning excellence, and has one of the highest numbers of National Teaching Fellows of any UK university. With over 19,000 students, and a further 9,500 studying for a Plymouth degree at partner institutions in the UK and around the world, and over 135,000 alumni pursuing their chosen careers globally, it has a growing global presence.

http://www.plymouth.ac.uk

* Research Fortnight Research Power League Table 2014.