Akers Biosciences 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.
“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,” Prabuddha Kundu, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Premas Biotech, said. 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.
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.
“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,” Christopher Schreiber, Executive Chairman of Akers, said.