EpiVax gets $600K grant from NIDDK

Rhode Island, USA-based EpiVax has received a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health, to develop Epi-13, a novel therapeutic for the prevention and treatment of type 1 diabetes, a devastating and chronic autoimmune disease that affects three million Americans.

NIDDK will provide EpiVax $600,000 over two years to reach proof-of-principle for the drug that will focus on the natural "regulatory T cells" and their protective role in the diabetes patient. The studies are anticipated to show that the drug reduces harmful immune responses to insulin-producing cells, preserving the body's ability to make its own insulin.

The approach used by EpiVax is called Antigen-Specific Adaptive Tolerance Induction, and it specifically targets and reduces undesirable immune responses. EpiVax used its proprietary computer algorithms to identify the molecules that induce ASATI. Because ASATI uses the body's own natural responses, this intervention has the potential to be far safer than immunosuppressive drugs that are now being studied. The promising treatment may have application to a broad range of auto-immune disorders. An article about Epi-13 has been accepted by the journal Blood and will be published later on this year.