"Orexo AB (publ.), a Swedish pharmaceutical company, announced that it continues to develop its innovative powder-based drug delivery technology AmorphOX to improve the properties of new or existing drugs. The aim is to develop formulations that help to significantly stabilize the active ingredient and enable alternative and more effective routes of administration.
AmorphOX-based formulations can be used for a wide range of active ingredients, from small molecules and peptides to larger biomolecules such as vaccines.
As a next strategic step to leverage the scalability of AmorphOX, Orexo has entered into a collaboration with Abera Bioscience (Abera), a platform and vaccine developer with over 30 years of research in the medical, molecular and microbiological fields. The aim of the collaboration is to develop mucosal vaccines based on Abera's innovative and patented vaccine platform.
As a first step, the aim is to develop powder-based intranasal vaccine candidates, focusing on Abera's influenza vaccine candidate. An intranasal influenza vaccine has the potential to easily and effectively help reduce the spread of infections and prevent disease, which could play an important role in a potential future pandemic.
”Influenza is a family of viruses that could mutate and cause the next pandemic, but seasonal influenza is already a major problem where vaccines are often not effective enough. Orexo has an impressive knowledge and technology for powder formulations of medicines that perfectly complements our expertise in vaccine development. Their innovative technology, AmorphOX, has shown to improve the properties of a wide range of different active ingredients. There is therefore great potential in this area, and we will be able to take many important development steps in the coming year,” says Maria Alriksson, CEO of Abera Bioscience.
The collaboration is funded by Abera through various previously received grants, mainly from CEPI (the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation).
Robert Rönn, SVP and head of R&D at Orexo, says: “Abera has an innovative and promising vaccine platform for the development of mucosal vaccines, as confirmed by their recent funding from CEPI. The collaboration is fully in line with our strategic development of the AmorphOX platform and through collaborations we can showcase the potential and value of our technology. We look forward to working with Abera, where our experience and technologies are highly complementary.”
Orexo’s proprietary drug delivery platform, AmorphOX, is a powder made up of particles which are built using a unique combination of a drug, carrier materials and, optionally, other ingredients. The particles are presented as an amorphous composite of the various ingredients providing for excellent chemical and physical stability, as well as rapid dissolution. The technology works for a broad scope of active ingredients and has been validated in several human clinical studies showing rapid and extensive drug exposure.
Orexo is a Swedish pharmaceutical company with 30 years of experience developing improved pharmaceuticals based on proprietary formulation technologies that meet large medical needs.
Abera Bioscience AB is a Swedish vaccine and biotechnology company founded in 2012, originating from molecular biology research at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Stockholm University. Abera develops innovative vaccines based on proprietary and patented platform technologies.