CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vaxess Technologies, Inc., an innovative life sciences company developing a pipeline of shelf-stable and simple-to-apply vaccines on the MIMIX patch platform announced occupancy of a second new facility and significant additions to the leadership team.
The new Cambridge headquarters will house the company’s administrative and R&D teams as the company expands the development and proofs of concept of vaccines formulated and delivered in Vaxess’s proprietary intradermal patch format (“MIMIX”) for its expanding pipeline of proprietary and partnered vaccines. The analytical lab will enable advanced formulation capabilities and serological assessments supporting both pre-clinical and clinical studies. The facility complements the company’s recently opened GMP manufacturing facility in Woburn, Massachusetts, currently scaling for the production of a MIMIX seasonal influenza patch for clinical evaluation this year.
Peter Courossi joins Vaxess as part-time CFO after decades of financial leadership in the biotech sector. He began his life science finance career as a controller at Genzyme before moving into leadership roles with organizations such as Millenium and Acceleron. More recently, he has served as interim CFO for a host of rapidly growing life sciences companies including Civitas, Kala, Visterra, and TransForm Pharmaceuticals.
John Spiridigliozzi joins Vaxess with more than two decades of experience leading the development of complex FDA-regulated devices across numerous sectors, including drug delivery. Most recently, he led the development of a non-invasive drug delivery combination device for the continuous, controlled release of medication to treat Parkinson’s Disease at SynAgile.
Lynda Tussey, PhD, has led Vaxess’s product development in a part-time role for the last eighteen months. She transitions to a full-time role to lead the company’s first product, the MIMIX-FLU vaccine (in collaboration with GC Pharma, South Korea), into the clinic this summer and to support the IND development of a COVID-19 vaccine patch (in collaboration with Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp., Taiwan) and other programs not yet announced.
“Demand is surging for technologies like MIMIX that simplify the logistics of transporting needle-free, easy-to-administer vaccines to patients wherever they are, whether in their living rooms or in remote corners of the world,” said Vaxess CEO Michael Schrader. “We’re thrilled to bolster our capacity to enable the application of the shelf-stable, self-applied MIMIX patch to multiple vaccines and therapeutics in 2022 and beyond.”
About the MIMIX™ Technology
The MIMIX patch is the easiest and most effective way to administer vaccines and therapeutics. The patch achieves controlled release of treatments to the intradermal region of the body at the most beneficial rate and duration. For vaccines, the controlled release simulates the pace of a natural infection, helping the body produce a slow, strong, and enduring ramp-up of immune response, ultimately boosting a vaccine’s effectiveness. Engineered for stability, Vaxess’s patch does not require refrigeration and can be shipped to and applied in low resource settings. Application is virtually painless and the applied patch resembles an adhesive bandage. After the prescribed wear time of just minutes, the MIMIX patch is peeled off and discarded: Microscopic intradermal therapeutic depots are left behind to present the payload to the immune system over a precision-engineered timespan.
About Vaxess Technologies
Vaxess Technologies is developing the MIMIX™ sustained release patch technology, originally conceived at MIT and Tufts University. MIMIX™ uses the unique qualities of silk proteins and breakthrough immune activating biology to enable best-in-class vaccines and therapeutics. Vaxess has raised more than $60M in grant and venture capital funding from groups such as The Engine, BARDA, DARPA, NIH, NSF and the Gates Foundation. A MIMIX Phase I proof-of-concept trial using a seasonal influenza antigen is slated to begin in the first half of 2022. For more information, please visit the company website at www.vaxess.com or send additional inquiries to contact@vaxess.com.
