Adjuvance Technologies, Inc.,. a privately owned biopharmaceutical company,  has announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Adjuvance co-founders a patent for a pioneering invention which provides a novel synthetic method to produce saponin adjuvants including QS-21, a leading vaccine adjuvant currently used in advanced clinical trials for infectious disease, neurodegenerative disorders and oncology. Despite adjuvants’ critical ability to improve the immune response to vaccine antigens, there are very few adjuvants approved for human use in the US.

QS-21 is a lead investigational adjuvant that has exhibited superior efficacy for a range of vaccine antigens. QS-21 has been widely used in over 100 clinical trials involving approximately 16,000 people. QS-21’s ability to augment clinically significant responses to vaccine antigens has convinced GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, CSL and Merck to incorporate QS-21 into their drug development pipelines. In its naturally derived form, QS-21 is a semi-purified plant extract isolated by the harvesting of a rare South American tree, which translates to unique production challenges for vaccine makers. Adjuvance’s new patented technology overcomes these production challenges by providing an ecologically sustainable synthetic product that is extremely pure, dependable and scalable.

“Before this innovative approach to producing saponin adjuvants, tedious isolation and purification protocols were necessary to obtain these materials. This work will greatly facilitate access to these promising molecules for investigators and vaccine developers” said Jeffrey Gardner, Adjuvance Technologies’ CEO and co-founder. As exclusive licensee of the technology, Adjuvance will continue to focus on the commercial development of saponin adjuvants for use in innovative therapeutic and prophylactic human vaccines as well as pandemic preparedness and biodefense efforts.

“At Adjuvance, we believe this technology, which was developed at the Sloan-Kettering Institute of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, represents a fundamental breakthrough in vaccine adjuvant design and manufacturing. This patented technology will be able to expand and accelerate global vaccine programs that require a more secure, consistent source of these promising vaccine adjuvants,” noted Gardner. US Patent No. 8,283,456 was awarded to Drs David Gin, Philip Livingston, Govind Ragupathi and others for “Triterpene saponins, methods of synthesis, and uses thereof.”