Danish biotech Evaxion use their multidisciplinary capabilities for target discovery and vaccine and antigen design. The company’s pipeline spans vaccines for both cancer and infectious diseases. Their vaccine design capabilities are based on their AI immunology platform which uses large protein language model architecture and advanced machine learning datasets. The platform incorporates different AI building blocks including disease decode, immune response decode, and vaccine design.
Evaxion’s main cancer vaccine model, PIONEER, looks for neoantigens which are great targets for cancer vaccines because they are only present in tumours and not regular tissue. PIONEER takes in tumour RNA and DNA sequencing data and then mimics the same mechanisms as inside the cancer cell to generate effective neoantigens. After this, the platform gives each antigen a score and ranks them based on their immunogenicity.
This presentation outlines Evaxion’s peptide-based vaccine EVX-01 for metastatic melanoma patients. EVX-01’s Phase I trial was conducted in collaboration with Harlev Hospital in Denmark which enrolled 12 patients towards a primary endpoint of safety and tolerability and a secondary endpoint of immune response induction. The active ingredient was formulated together with CAF09b, a novel liposomal adjuvant which facilitates the production of CD8+ T cells.
The phase one trial for EVX-01 showed that the vaccine was safe, with immune responses observed in all patients, leading to a decision to proceed to phase two trials. For the phase two trial, Evaxion collaborates with MSD for pembrolizumab supply, continuing the assessment of EVX-01's efficacy.
The vaccine design process involves sequencing tumor and blood samples to personalise treatment for each patient. The company also plans to extend the trial to monitor patient responses over a longer duration, adding booster doses to the treatment regimen.