Poolbeg reports progress with oral vaccine development

Clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Poolbeg Pharma updated the market on its oral vaccine programme on Thursday.

The AIM-traded firm said it had received non-dilutive grant funding from the Irish Government's Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) in November, which was awarded as part of the Poolbeg-led EncOVac Consortium.

It said the EncOVac Consortium comprises several members who had now finalised the research plan and completed the necessary consortium and grant agreements.

The next phase of the programme would focus on validating the encapsulation process, which was expected to be completed in the second half.

Poolbeg said the EncOVac Consortium was granted three years of funding to develop an oral vaccine candidate ready for phase one clinical trials.

The board said the research plan included multiple stages of work, with the initial focus on validating the encapsulation process developed by AnaBio Technologies.

Once the process was successfully validated, the consortium would proceed to encapsulate vaccine antigen candidates developed by associate professor Siobhán McClean at University College Dublin (UCD), along with adjuvants identified by professor Ed Lavelle at Trinity College Dublin.

The resulting oral vaccine candidate would undergo all necessary non-clinical testing to prepare for phase one clinical trials.

“The validation of the encapsulation process is a key step in the creation of a phase one clinical trial ready oral vaccine candidate, and Poolbeg is proud to lead the EncOVac Consortium,” said chief executive officer Dr Jeremy Skillington.

“Delivering oral vaccines to the gut has the potential to revolutionise global protection against infectious disease.

“In contrast to intramuscular vaccines that generate systemic immunity, oral vaccines induce mucosal immunity, which can induce better protection against pathogens at the site of infection.”

At 1343 BST, shares in Poolbeg Pharma were down 1.75% at 8.3p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.