Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics Reaches Agreement to License Next-Generation COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates from the University of British Columbia

    VANCOUVER, BC, December 02, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics (EYAM) today announced that a License Agreement has been reached between the University of British Columbia (UBC) and EYAM for the commercialization of several unique COVID-19 vaccine candidates developed at UBC. This License Agreement represents an important corporate milestone.

The License provides EYAM with the exclusive right to develop several proprietary COVID-19 vaccine candidates in a self-amplifying mRNA vaccine platform. EYAM anticipates rapid commencement of animal trials for these COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

Ryan M. Thomas, CEO of EYAM, said, "The rapid development of vaccines for COVID-19 that stop the infection and transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has become a global priority in order to halt the pandemic. This license represents a key building block in our program to establish EYAM as a world-wide leader in the creation and commercial development of vaccines."

Dr. Reno Pontarollo, President & COO of EYAM stated, "Our goal is to end the global COVID-19 pandemic by creating unique sterilizing vaccines that halt infection and transmission of the virus. However, the creation of a sterilizing vaccine for COVID-19 that is safe and effective in a global population of over 7 billion people, is a monumental task. The self-amplifying mRNA vaccine technologies designed at UBC by immunologist Professor Wilf Jefferies include several viral components in addition to the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins used by other vaccine developers, have the potential to reduce the effective quantities of COVID-19 vaccine per dose, and are made in the absence of serum or tissues to eliminate the toxicity inherent in other vaccine platforms. Overall, these unique vaccines address several current obstacles in COVID-19 vaccine development."

Professor Jefferies' COVID-19 program at the Michael Smith Laboratories (MSL) at UBC and the Vancouver Prostate Centre (VPC) at the Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) has been supported in part by a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research's COVID-19 Rapid Response Project grant (https://www.msfhr.org) and by Microsoft Corp. in conjunction with Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (Mitacs: https://www.mitacs.ca/en) and by donations to the Sullivan Urology Foundation (https://mycharityfund.ca/charity/75109/the-sullivan-urology-foundation).

About Eyam: Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics is a Private Canadian based company focused on research and development of vaccines that are safe and efficacious at low doses. Eyam (pronounced 'eem') was named to honour of the village in Derbyshire where in 1665 and 1666 the residents chose to stay and brave near certain death rather than travelling and risk transmitting the plague to their neighbouring towns. In the end, 75% of Eyam's residents did indeed die, but their surrounding neighbours were saved due to Eyam's selfless quarantine. For information see: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2016.0618.

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