COVID-19 Vaccine: Despite Frustrating Lockdown Roadblocks INTELLiSTEM Technologies Develops a Longer Lasting, Quicker and Less Expensive Vaccine

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, April 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - INTELLiSTEM Technologies Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering cellular vaccines and peptide therapeutics, announced the successful development of a peptide-based vaccine candidate (IPT-001) intended for human use against COVID-19.

According to Dr. Riam Shammaa, MD, Founder and CEO of INTELLiSTEM Technologies, the COVID lockdown, while essential to flatten the curve, is also profoundly impacting the ability for researchers to develop and test COVID-19 vaccines.

"Due to current self-isolation policies, many universities, animal facilities and personnel are on lockdown, and while the safety of everyone is our number one priority, severe lockdowns may be impacting the development of COVID-19 solutions" said Dr. Shammaa. "We can't find animal facilities open to get the testing required by the FDA to advance to human trials, and the quotes we are getting from some of the operational animal facilities for COVID-19 vaccines are insanely expensive. Currently, some quotes for an animal study are costing as much as 45 human patient clinical trials!"

"Our vaccine candidate was developed 3 weeks ago, but unfortunately the first shipment was destroyed due to lockdowns and shipment delays at the Canadian US border and shipping processing facilities," added Shammaa. "A huge thanks to our team and our collaborators who had to work day, night and throughout weekends to reproduce the vaccines."

The Vaccine

IPT-001 is a peptide-based vaccine candidate developed using the novel coronavirus COVID-19. It was engineered using INTELLiPEPTIDOME^TM Platform to target both the Spike (S) and Nucleocapsid (N) proteins.

"We have been validating INTELLiPEPTIDOME^TM over the last 2 years starting with Ebola and Leishmania vaccines and moving to oncology. INTELLiPEPTIDOME^TM is precisely developed to identify vaccine subunits against a target like COVID-19 in a fast, reliable and less expensive way" said Shammaa.

INTELLiSTEM takes a different direction on vaccine
"Our approach is to trigger both strong cellular and humoral responses leading to not only a therapeutic effect but also long-term protection (5-8 years) from COVID-19. The vaccine is also less expensive and faster to develop," said Dr. Shammaa.

"The power of the platform is that it can quickly be adapted to other pandemics and diseases, all we need are the proteins of the disease and within 5 weeks we can deliver a vaccine candidate."

"We are now in the process of IND submission, and final stages of preparing our Phase I clinical trial. We anticipate starting our Phase I trial as early as September 2020."

About IPT-001
IPT-001 is peptide vaccine candidate against the Spike (S) and Nucleocapsid (N) proteins of COVID-19, which was developed by INTELLiSTEM using the INTELLiPEPTIDOME^TM platform. The technology relies on our proprietary IntelliCells^TM to identify peptides that will mount both cellular and humoral responses against the virus leading not only to a therapeutic effect against the virus, but also long-term protection.

About INTELLiPEPTIDOME^TM: 
INTELLiPEPTIDOME^TM platform allows for systematic analysis of peptides selected by our genetically engineered stem cells, IntelliCells^TM for triggering efficient and specific immune responses. INTELLiPEPTIDOME^TM profiles (Iding) the immunopeptidome of established pathogen for the development of universal vaccines designed to stimulate a patient's immune response to the antigen-derived epitopes. It can also be used the discovery of novel epitopes for monoclonal antibody development as well.

About INTELLiSTEM TECHNOLOGIES:
INTELLiSTEM Technologies is a privately-owned biotechnology company engineering the next generation cell therapy products using stem cells. Its proprietary genetically engineered cell platforms include Super Sentinel Cells^TM (SSCs) for cancer therapeutics and IntelliCells^TM for drug discovery and target identification. INTELLiSTEM is currently moving into human clinical trials.

SOURCE INTELLiSTEM Technologies

Related Links

https://www.intellistemtech.com/

WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM?

440k+
Newsrooms &
Influencers

9k+
Digital Media
Outlets

270k+
Journalists
Opted In

GET STARTED