Akers Biosciences Acquires Licenses to Coronavirus Vaccine Candidate from Premas Biotech
25 March 2020 - 12:00AM
Akers Biosciences, Inc. (the “Company”) (NASDAQ: AKER), a developer
of rapid health information technologies, today announced that it
has acquired a licensing agreement with Premas Biotech, under which
Akers will in-license a novel coronavirus vaccine candidate under
development by Premas using Premas’ genetically engineered S.
cerevisiae platform, D-Crypt™, and partner with Premas to
ultimately seek FDA approval. The current global crisis has created
the potential for an expedited review process from the FDA, which
has recently noted its willingness to fast-track human clinical
trials for certain coronavirus candidates.
Prabuddha Kundu, Co-Founder and Managing
Director at Premas Biotech, added, “The strategic relationship
today between Premas and Akers should accelerate our development
timeline as we leverage the proven D-CryptTm platform and Akers’ 30
years of operational experience navigating the healthcare
regulatory environment. We believe our platform has three key
advantages which we believe will set our potential vaccine apart in
the industry. First, it has successfully expressed more than 30
proteins of similar profile to those in the structure of COVID-19.
We believe our platform is well suited for the expression of
difficult vaccine candidate proteins, a key and difficult step in
the process of developing a vaccine. Second, the technology
platform is highly scalable with a robust process, which should
represent significant cost savings compared to other similar
vaccine platforms, which we believe is a key advantage to peers in
the field. Third, we believe the current global pandemic might
allow for an expedited FDA review timeline based on recent
pronouncements regarding other COVID-19 vaccine and treatment
candidates. In fact, we would hope to have material updates
regarding proof of concept, drug design, and regulatory discussions
in the near term.”
Premas is utilizing its D-Crypt™ platform to
recombinantly express the major structural proteins of the
coronavirus. Based on genetically engineered baker’s yeast S.
cerevisiae, D-Crypt™ is highly scalable into commercial production
quantities and has been previously utilized for the production of
multiple human and animal health vaccines candidates during its
10-year development track record.
Prabuddha Kundu summarized, “Premas has worked
successfully with global pharmaceutical companies over the past 14
years and has been recognized as one of the 20 key global
manufacturers for difficult protein expression and production. We
are experts in enabling gene to IND studies for drug and vaccine
candidates and currently have four candidates in clinical trials
globally for our partners. Our processes are robust, fast, and
scalable, and aimed at reducing cost of goods, which if successful,
will provide Akers with a significant competitive advantage as they
move through the milestone pathway for an nCoV-19 vaccine.”
Christopher Schreiber, Executive Chairman of
Akers, stated, “Akers is a Nasdaq Listed company with a 30-year
history in the development and manufacturing of rapid diagnostic
tests. We have always been focused on solving global health
challenges. After careful evaluation, partnering with Premas to
address the global health pandemic of Coronavirus represents an
important opportunity to leverage our expertise, leadership, and
access to capital as a public company to end this threat. We are
also evaluating the utilization of our facility with Premas for the
development of this vaccine candidate as we move the product
forward.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Akers is
acquiring Cystron Biotech LLC for a $1 million upfront payment,
622,756 shares of common stock or common stock equivalents and a
royalty on net sales. In addition, Akers shall make additional
payments of cash and stock to the sellers of Cystron Biotech LLC
upon the achievement of certain milestones, along with a change of
control. Akers is also required to make certain cash payments to
Premas upon the achievement of additional milestones. For a more
detailed description of the transaction documents, please see
Akers’ Current Report on Form 8-K, filed with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission on March 24, 2020.
About Premas Biotech
Premas Biotech develops novel &
transformational technologies and partners with global
biopharmaceutical companies to build and develop novel
biotherapeutic & vaccine candidates. Premas' key focus areas
are infectious diseases, cancer, metabolic disorders
and inflammation. Besides D-CryptTM the difficult to express
proteins expression platform, Premas’ leading technologies include
Axtex-4D™: an ex-vivo tissueoid generation platform and C-Qwence™:
a fully human naive India based scFv antibody library. Further
information is available on the Company’s
website: www.premasbiotech.com
Contact email: contact@premasbiotech.com
About Akers Biosciences
Inc.
Akers Biosciences develops, manufactures, and
supplies rapid, point of care screening and testing products
designed to bring health related information directly to the
patient or clinician in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Akers
has previously announced that that it had identified the hemp
and minor cannabinoid sectors as promising adjacent opportunities
that could benefit from Akers’ existing facility and its core
competencies.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release relating to
plans, strategies, trends, specific activities or investments, and
other statements that are not descriptions of historical facts and
may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking
information is inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, and
actual results could differ materially from those currently
anticipated due to a number of factors, which include any risks
detailed from time to time in Akers' reports filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, Annual Reports on Form 10-K,
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K.
Forward-looking statements may be identified by terms such as
"may," "will," "expects," "plans," "intends," "estimates,"
"potential," or "continue," or similar terms or the negative of
these terms. Although Akers believes the expectations reflected in
the forward-looking statements are reasonable, they cannot
guarantee that future results, levels of activity, performance or
achievements will be obtained. Akers does not have any obligation
to update these forward-looking statements other than as required
by law.
Additional information on the company and its products can be
found at www.akersbio.com.
Contact:
Investor
Relations: Hayden IR
Brett Mass, Managing Partner
Phone: (646) 536-7331
Email: brett@haydenir.com
www.haydenir.com
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