Immunovaccine Inc, a vaccine developer, and IRX Therapeutics, a developer of immune therapies to make cancer treatments better, have entered into a preclinical research collaboration to evaluate the combination of IRX’s primary cell-derived biologic, IRX-2, and DepoVax- based therapeutic cancer vaccines. The goal of the research is to demonstrate that the combination of the two technologies generates a superior anti-tumour immune response and will provide the foundation for the development of the next generation of therapeutic cancer vaccines.

“This is a very exciting pre-clinical collaboration between two companies with promising immunotherapy technologies for cancer,” says Dr Neil Berinstein, chief scientific officer of IRX Therapeutics.  “Pre-clinical studies have already shown that IRX-2 can significantly enhance immune response triggered by peptide and other cancer vaccine platforms and there is reason to believe that this will be further enhanced by combining IRX-2 with Immunovaccine’s DepoVax- immune adjuvant platform.”

“IRX-2 has interesting immune-modulating characteristics and we hope that combining it with DepoVax-based anti-cancer vaccines, the result will be a synergistic anti-tumour effect,” said Marc Mansour, vice president of Research and Development at Immunovaccine.

IRX’s lead product candidate, IRX-2, is designed to broadly restore the immune system. This primary cell-derived biologic seeks to overcome cancer–induced immune suppression and restore anti-tumor response, vital steps in successfully treating cancer. The IRX-2 immunomodulator includes multiple cytokine proteins that work together synergistically to activate different arms of the immune system.

Immunovaccine’s DepoVax platform is a lipid depot-based vaccine delivery and enhancement technology. This patented combination is a breakthrough in vaccine development because it raises unusually strong and long-lasting cellular or humoral immune responses.

IRX Therapeutics is developing immune therapies that activate a patient’s immune system to defeat cancer and related diseases.

Immunovaccine Inc is a clinical stage vaccine development company focused on the commercialization of its patented DepoVax vaccine delivery technology and product candidates.