Vaxil Provides Update on Preclinical Experiment

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The Company is not making any express or implied claims that it has developed a vaccine to treat COVID-19 (or SARS-CoV-2) at this time

NESS-ZIONA, Israel, April 13, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VAXIL BIO LTD. (“Vaxil” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE: VXL), an innovative immunotherapy biotech company specializing in cancer and infectious diseases, is pleased to share the results of our first preclinical experiment whose purpose was to test the immune response of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate.  These results provide the first pre-clinical validation of our in silico modelling announced a few weeks ago.

By leveraging its platform, Vaxil discovered a potential peptide vaccine against COVID-19 back in February 2020 and then proceeded to manufacture these peptides as well as design the preclinical program to prove effectiveness (the “Program”). Dr. Mordechai Applebaum, PhD, Vaxil’s head of Research and Development, conducted and validated this experiment at the Company’s laboratory in Nes Ziona, Israel, over the last six weeks.  The experiments have not been independently verified; this will take place as we advance the Program.

The first experiment in this Program is now complete. As is common in such early preclinical trials/research programs, the first experiment was performed on healthy donor blood cells to validate the immune response in a screening protocol. It was designed to establish that our signal peptides demonstrate a favorable immune response (immunogenicity profile).  The results of this test were positive, as proliferation was observed in varying degrees in T cell population (CD3+) as well as in specific subpopulations: cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CD8+) and more prominently in T helper cells (CD4+).

The individual peptides, as well as in combination, all responded in varying degrees, more than unstimulated cells. What was most encouraging was that the most pronounced response was in T helper cells (CD4+). These responses are comparable to those seen for ImMucin, which was used in our Phase 1/2a study for multiple myeloma, published by the Company in 2011 and demonstrated the safety profile of ImMucin.

One of the peptides responded less well (VXL-301), we believe, due to impurities introduced in manufacturing. A purer form has already been ordered and delivered. We are also assessing several large-scale contract manufacturers to develop a scaled GMP process, in the event our preclinical experiments continue to generate positive results.