Imaxio receives scientific advice from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its influenza vaccine candidate IMX836

Imaxio, a biotech company specializing in immunology, announces today that it has received scientific advice from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for IMX836, its vaccine candidate dedicated to the prevention of influenza in humans.

This first scientific advice reinforces Imaxio’s plan to start, by early 2018, a phase I clinical trial involving IMX836.

Imaxio’s influenza vaccine candidate IMX836 is being developed as an add-on to seasonal vaccines, in order to improve the effectiveness of prevention through vaccination, especially in elderly people. It is based on IMX313P, a proimmunogenic antigen re-engineering technology owned by Imaxio.

“The preclinical results we have obtained make us confident in the ability of our IMX313P-based influenza vaccine candidate to improve the effectiveness of current seasonal influenza prevention,” said Alexandre Le Vert, Chief Executive Officer of Imaxio. “With this scientific advice from the EMA, we confirm the IMX836 roadmap to enter the clinic by early 2018.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that seasonal influenza epidemics result in 3 to 5 million serious cases every year. With 250,000 to 500,000 annual deaths recorded worldwide, there is a strong medical need to improve current influenza vaccines, particularly in the elderly and for numerous strains of influenza, both seasonal and pandemic.