AuraVax Therapeutics, which is developing an intranasal vaccine against COVID-19, announced that it has acquired an exclusive license for IP related to intranasal respiratory vaccine technology and STING agonist technology from the University of Houston. Earlier this year, the company announced that it had licensed liposomal STING agonist technology from Massachusetts General Hospital for use with its intranasal vaccines.
AuraVax co-founder Navin Varadarajan, a professor at the University of Houston, commented, “We are excited to rapidly expand our relationship with the University of Houston to advance the development of this novel intranasal approach to tackle respiratory viruses. We plan to stop COVID-19 at its point of entry — the nasal cavity — and we believe our intranasal platform represents a differentiated solution that will lead to a vaccine to create sustained immunity to COVID-19 and other viruses.”
Varadarajan continued, “The demand for effective ways of vaccinating against COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases has led us to develop technology that elicits rapid mucosal and systemic immunity. We believe AuraVax has a competitive advantage given the broad immune responses it is generating, its user-friendly delivery mechanism and shelf-life characteristics, which should enable convenient widespread distribution and self-administration application.”
Read the AuraVax press release.
