Premas Biotech Secures Licensing Deal for Commercializing Its Vaccine Technology in India

Gurugram: Premas Biotech, a developer of novel biotherapeutic and vaccine candidates, today announced that it has signed a licensing deal with Oravax Medical Inc. for development and commercialization in India, of its virus-like-particle COVID-19 vaccine technology.

Premas Biotech signs licensing deal for virus-like particle (VLP) injectable vaccine technology for COVID-19, with Oravax for commercialization in India
Premas Biotech’s VLP vaccine being tested against COVID-19 variants including Delta
​Premas Biotech, a developer of novel biotherapeutic and vaccine candidates, today announced that it has signed a licensing deal with Oravax Medical Inc. for development and commercialization in India, of its virus-like-particle COVID-19 vaccine technology. Oravax Medical Inc. is a joint venture between Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq/TASE: ORMP) and Premas Biotech. Oravax brings together a virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine technology, developed by Premas Biotech with Oramed’s proprietary protein oral delivery (POD™) technology in the development of oral vaccines that are now only available via injection.

“Oravax has out-licensed certain rights in the territory of India to Premas Biotech, the original developer of the novel vaccine. As Oravax maintains its focus on oral vaccines, it has licensed to Premas the right to develop an injectable version of its VLP technology with an aim to address the urgent need for a vaccine which is effective against the Delta variant’, said Oravax in an official statement.

“Oravax’s VLP platform technology can be delivered either via injection or orally. Because Oravax is focused on oral vaccines, we saw a clear benefit to out-licensing rights to the injectable version in India, where there is an urgent need for vaccines,” said Nadav Kidron, CEO of Oramed, the majority shareholder in Oravax.

Dr. Prabuddha Kundu, co-founder & MD at Premas Biotech said, “We are extremely proud to have designed and developed an innovative vaccine technology, here in India. Our technology is based on our difficult-to-express proteins platform, D-CryptTM, and we believe it has multi-dimensional advantages over other existing technologies. We are thrilled that our technology is getting international recognition and are very excited about commercializing it here in India.”

Premas Biotech’s triple antigen Covid-19 vaccine candidate targets three SARS CoV-2 virus surface proteins, including proteins less susceptible to mutation, thus making the vaccine potentially effective against current and future variants of the COVID-19 virus. The VLP vaccine candidate is being tested in pre-clinical studies against COVID-19 variants including the Delta variant. Premas Biotech’s VLP vaccine technology is highly scalable with a low cost of goods and easily transferable.

Premas plans to manufacture, test, and potentially commercialize the injectable version of the VLP vaccine in India where the COVID-19 vaccine market is anticipated to grow to over $2.3 billion by 2027. India is currently in a race to speed up the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations for its population of 1.4 billion as the country’s death toll from the pandemic has topped 400,000 with 31 million cases.

Premas Biotech developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate gets IRB approval for clinical trial through Oral Vaccine maker Oravax
Oravax is gearing up to commence clinical trials for its oral COVID-19 vaccine, first in Israel, then in additional clinical sites internationally. The study protocol has been approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel and is now pending approval from the Israeli Ministry of Health. GMP manufacturing for the oral vaccine is under way.

The oral VLP COVID-19 vaccine is being developed for use both as a standalone vaccine as well as a booster for people who have been previously vaccinated for COVID-19. Experts including at the World Health Organization expect booster shots will be needed for both general and at-risk populations. If successful, an oral vaccine would offer enormous logistical, financial, and environmental benefits for the billions of people slated to receive them, particularly in parts of the world where access to healthcare is limited.

Successful cloning and expression of SARS-Cov-2 surface proteins
Dr. Kundu added, “We have cloned, expressed and purified all the variants of Spike protein and along with the N, M and E proteins, that form an array of very high-quality antigens for diagnostics development. The company has tied up with partners to develop and sell in India, high-quality Lateral Flow Assays (LFAs) for antigen detection as well as an advanced LFA for multiple antibody detection for a multiplicity of antigens as well as receptor binding domain.”

Premas also generated a Covid-focused antibody library with a focus on creating therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies. The company has progressed down this path and is looking at potential partners to accelerate the development, Kundu informed.