Evaxion and Merck Enter into Option and License Agreement for Two Preclinical Vaccine Candidates with Potential Milestone Payments Exceeding $1 Billion

September 26, 2024Evaxion Biotech Announces Option and License Agreement with MSD for Two Preclinical Vaccine CandidatesAmong them, EVX-B2 is a protein-based gonorrhea candidate vaccine, and EVX-B3 targets an undisclosed infectious agent. This agreement expands the current collaboration between the two companies.

Evaxion was founded in 2008, with its headquarters located in Copenhagen, Denmark, and is aAn artificial intelligence company dedicated to building a target discovery platform started focusing on personalized cancer immunotherapy 7 years ago.. CompanyProprietary scalable artificial intelligence prediction models harness the power of AI to decode the human immune system, developing novel immunotherapies for cancer, bacterial diseases, and viral infections. Based on AI-Immunology™,Evaxion Biotech has developed a novel personalized cancer vaccine pipeline in the clinical stage, as well as a preclinical infectious disease pipeline., for the treatment of bacterial and viral diseases with unmet medical needs.

MSD makes small investments in these two candidate products to gain a deeper understanding of them. MSDOptions for two vaccine candidates from Evaxion Biotech have been selected as part of the deal.Evaxion Biotech to Receive $3.2 Million Upfront Payment and Up to $10 Million in 2025。

In addition,Evaxion is eligible to receive development, regulatory, and sales milestone payments, with a potential value of up to $592 million per product, as well as royalties on net sales.。In other words, if MSD chooses to exercise this option, Evaxion Biotech is expected to receiveOver 10USD billion in potential milestone payments.

This transaction coversBoth candidate products are derived from Evaxion's use of artificial intelligence to identify antigens capable of triggering strong protective immune responses. This platform, named EDEN, ranks antigens based on their ability to elicit an immune response. Evaxion also employs a second technology that identifies viral B-cell antigens and multiple T-cell epitopes.It is applied to vaccines targeting undisclosed pathogens.

Regarding the first productCandidate vaccine, namely EVX-B2Evaxion, by using the EDEN platform to process 10 proteomes of the gonorrhea bacterium, has developed a gonorrhea vaccine candidate product named EVX-B2. This Danish biotechnology company incorporated several different antibiotic resistance profiles in selected strains. After identifying the vaccine antigens, Evaxion evaluated them in vivo with different adjuvants to test for antigen-specific antibody responses, bactericidal activity, and protective effects.

Regarding the second clauseCandidate vaccine, namely EVX-B3，There is less publicly disclosed information.. Evaxion started cooperation withMSDCollaborate on this project. The company stated that the candidate product targets a pathogen "associated with recurrent infections, increasing morbidity, and often leading to severe medical complications, for which there is currently no vaccine available."However, Evaxion has not yet disclosed the pathogenName.

MSDThe collaboration with Evaxion on the EVX-B3 project is part of a broader relationship between the two parties.MSDThe corporate venture capital department participated in Evaxion Biotech’s $5.3 million private placement last year and holds nearly 10% of the company's shares, making it the single largest shareholder.。

In addition,MSDAlso provides itsPD-1 Inhibitor Keytruda Used in Phase 2 Cancer Vaccine Trial——EVX-01 is a novel personalized cancer immunotherapy based on Evaxion's proprietary PIONEER™ AI technology, designed for the treatment of melanoma patients.

Phase 1/2a clinical trial data for EVX-01 showed that 6 out of 9 patients (67%) benefited from the combination of EVX-01 and the PD-1 inhibitor (KEYTRUDA) in treating metastatic melanoma, compared to historical data where only 33-40% of patients benefited from the PD-1 inhibitor alone. Twenty-two percent of patients achieved complete remission after receiving the combination of EVX-01 and the PD-1 inhibitor (KEYTRUDA). Phase 2 data confirmed the favorable safety profile observed with EVX-01 in Phase 1 trials, with promising immunological and clinical outcomes consistent with Phase 1 results.

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