Vaxil BioTherapeutics Ltd. has signed a collaborative research agreement with Canada's Immunovaccine Inc. (CA: IMU) to explore the efficacy of Vaxil's cancer antigens in Immunovaccine's DepoVax vaccine enhancement platform.

Vaxil BioTherapeutics, based in Rehovot, pioneers the development of novel T-cell synthetic vaccines for both therapeutic and prophylactic use. Using a proprietary technology VaxHit, the company has identified a large number of vaccine candidates in the fields of cancer and infectious diseases. The company's lead product - ImMucin(TM), an anti-MUC1 therapeutic cancer vaccine has received regulatory permission to start Phase I/II clinical trials in Multiple Myeloma patients, due to begin later this year.

Vaxil BioTherapeutics founder and CEo Lior Carmon said, "In preclinical studies, the DepoVax(TM) delivery platform has a demonstrated ability to enhance vaccines, generating a prolonged immune response. We believe that this could fit well with our products and we look forward to making strong advances together in developing the next generation of cancer therapeutics."

Immunovaccine VP R&D Marc Mansour said, "Vaxil has an innovative approach for identifying cancer antigens that get presented more efficiently by the MHC molecules. Vaxil's long peptides are good candidates for formulation in our DepoVax(TM) platform making this an interesting research partnership."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 8, 2010

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