N4 Pharma reports progress in Nuvec clinical research

Pharmaceutical delivery system developer N4 Pharma reported significant progress in its research efforts to enhance viral vector performance using Nuvec on Monday.

The AIM-traded firm said that in collaboration with the University of Brunel, it conducted a series of in vitro experiments which yielded promising results.

It said the experiments demonstrated that Nuvec could substantially improve transduction efficacy when combined with adeno-associated virus 8 (AAV8), building on previous work where Nuvec enhanced the transduction efficacy of a standard adenovirus vector.

In particular, the study involved mixing Nuvec with AAV8 carrying a fluorescent green protein gene and using it for transduction in human-like liver cells, modelled after induced pluripotent cells.

The transduction efficacy increased by 2.5 times compared to using the AAV8 vector in isolation.

N4 said AAV8 was chosen for the investigation due to its current use in clinical development projects.

"The number of approvals of new gene therapies and the need for appropriate delivery systems have reached unprecedented highs and demand is growing exponentially," said chief executive officer Nigel Theobald.

"The AAV vector market alone is projected to grow from $1.9bn in 2022 to $11.1bn by 2035, a compound annual growth rate of 14%.

"For in vivo gene therapy, the adenovirus (AV) and adeno-associated virus (AAV) are acknowledged as the most used delivery vehicles."

However, Theobald said relatively high amounts of AV and AAV were needed to be clinically efficient, which appeared directly correlated with adverse patient events such as unwanted immunogenicity and potential safety implications.

"Our work shows that Nuvec has the potential to reduce the amount of AV and AAV needed and thus decrease both the cost of goods and immunogenicity associated with using these viral vectors.

"We believe this will be a major focus of the pharma biotech industry as these viral vector delivery systems are further investigated.

"This work is running in parallel to our ongoing oral and dual loading work as well as the Nanogenics' Glaucoma product, an update on which will follow soon."

At 1040 GMT, shares in N4 Pharma were down 6.15% at 1.22p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.