GAITHERSBURG, Md. and WASHINGTON, June 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Iomai Corporation announced that its Chief Scientific Officer, Gregory Glenn, M.D., today presented an overview of the company's unique patch-based adjuvant program at the World Health Organization Conference on Intradermal Immunization in Washington. The company is testing adjuvant patches for their ability to enhance the immune response to vaccines for seasonal and pandemic influenza.
This year, Iomai plans to begin a Phase 2 clinical trial of an adjuvant patch designed to increase the immune response to injected flu vaccine in the elderly. In addition, the company will initiate its first clinical safety and immunogenicity study for its adjuvant patch for use in combination with a pandemic influenza vaccine. The pandemic influenza program is being supported by a $128 million government contract, awarded in January.
"In the coming months, we will gather crucial data on the benefit of our adjuvant patches, which address key medical needs surrounding influenza," said Dr. Glenn. "Elderly patients who receive the traditional influenza vaccine are only protected in as few as half of all cases, and we believe that adding Iomai's adjuvant patch will lead to broader protection in that at-risk group. Similarly, our adjuvant patch for pandemic influenza is being developed to induce robust immune responses to even small doses of injected vaccine, allowing public health officials to stretch limited supplies of the vaccine."
Iomai uses an adjuvant known as heat-labile toxin, or LT, to increase the immune response to influenza vaccination. LT also serves as the basis of the company's travelers' diarrhea vaccine, which Iomai is preparing to bring into a Phase 3 trial. Iomai's patch-based technology allows LT to pass into the skin and then to the immune system, where it acts to enhance the immune response without systemic adverse events. Earlier this year, Iomai showed clinical results from its travelers' diarrhea program demonstrating that LT is efficiently delivered, with a 95 percent seroconversion rate seen with doses as low at 7.5 micrograms.
Dr. Glenn, the founder of Iomai, developed the company's proprietary transcutaneous immunization technology (TCI) technology. The needle-free technology uses a patch placed on the surface of the skin to deliver vaccines and adjuvants via a group of antigen-presenting cells in the skin to the nearby lymph nodes, where a sustained immune response is triggered.
About Iomai Corporation
Iomai Corporation discovers and develops vaccines and immune system stimulants, delivered via a novel, needle-free technology called transcutaneous immunization (TCI). TCI taps into the unique benefits of a major group of antigen-presenting cells found in the outer layers of the skin (Langerhans cells) to generate an enhanced immune response. Iomai is leveraging TCI to enhance the efficacy of existing vaccines, develop new vaccines that are viable only through transcutaneous administration and expand the global vaccine market. Iomai currently has four product candidates in development: three targeting influenza and pandemic flu and one to prevent E. coli-related travelers' diarrhea. For more information on Iomai, please visit http://www.iomai.com/.
Some matters discussed in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" that involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include statements about the ability of Iomai's adjuvant patches to enhance the immune response to vaccines for seasonal and pandemic influenza, timing for initiating new clinical trials; the use of results from previous trials to determine doses for future studies of Iomai's vaccine candidates for pandemic and seasonal influenza, expected government funding; and the safety profile of Iomai's vaccine patches. Applicable risks and uncertainties include, among others, that Iomai may not be able to enroll sufficient numbers of patients in future clinical trials; that future clinical trials may not replicate results seen in previous trials; that Iomai may be unable to obtain the regulatory approvals necessary to conduct additional clinical trials or to market any product candidates for pandemic and seasonal influenza; that development costs may exceed expectations; that Iomai may fail to adequately protect its intellectual property or may be determined to infringe on the intellectual property of others; and the risks identified under the heading "Factors That May Impact Future Results" in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2007, and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Iomai cautions investors and others not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. You are encouraged to read the Company's filings for a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties which are filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, available at http://www.sec.gov/.
These statements speak only as of the date of this document, and Iomai undertakes no obligation to update or revise the statements.
