Adjuvantix gets new funds to drive vaccine tech development

In the UK, Biofusion has announced an investment of L240,000 ($442,656) in Adjuvantix, a Sheffield-based biopharmaceutical company focussed on novel technologies to enhance immune system responses to prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. The investment will be made in two tranches, the first of which will take Biofusion's shareholding to 41%. The second is milestone-dependent and, when fully invested, Biofusion's holding in Adjuvantix will be 49%.

Adjuvantix has developed a new approach to stimulate the immune system safely and increase the effectiveness of a wide range of vaccine antigens including proteins, peptides, polysaccharides and organic molecules and thus improve vaccines for any clinical application. The technology has the potential to improve drugs for cancer and inflammatory diseases as well as infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDS.

The technology developed by Adjuvantix also has the potential to overcome the limitations of existing adjuvant technologies which are effective in enhancing immune responses but can also cause unwanted local and systemic side effects, such as pain, redness, swelling and fever.