PeptiVAX/PeptiENV/PeptiBAC

HELSINKI, Finland, Feb. 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Valo Therapeutics Oy (ValoTx), the developer of novel, adaptable immunotherapies for cancer and infectious diseases, announces that it has secured funding of approximately EUR 2.23 million (around USD 2.42 million) from the European Innovation Council (EIC) for a project to progress the company’s innovative PeptiCHIP technology. PeptiCHIP rapidly identifies a tumor’s antigen presentation profile to drive development of novel personalized immunotherapies. The project, which will be fully funded by the EIC with a 100%, non-dilutive, grant is called “Pre-clinical validation and demonstration of PeptiCHIP”. ValoTx also gains access to EIC Business Acceleration Services including coaching, mentoring, and partnering events. Dr Otto Kari, VP & Head of ValoTx’s Antigen Business Unit, and EIC projects lead, said, “This is a great endorsement from a major European Institution of the potential of our novel microchip based PeptiCHIP technology to transform lives. Each little chip has 14,000 microscopic pillars, with each one able to capture peptides from tiny amounts of tumor tissue for subsequent analysis. EIC Transition grants fund innovation activities that go far beyond the experimental proof of principle in the laboratory to support both progression towards a real-world application, and the innovation’s future commercialization.” Paul Higham, CEO of ValoTx, commented, “I’m delighted that the EIC has chosen to support us as we develop PeptiCHIP alongside our clinical development program. Identification of relevant antigens is one of the key challenges in developing effective immunotherapies for cancer. PeptiCHIP will allow us to do exactly this for our own clinical development and for partnerships with other innovative companies. The unique adaptability and flexibility our lead platform PeptiCRAd provides, coupled with our own antigen identification by PeptiCHIP, will allow us to develop economically viable and real-world practical personalized cancer immunotherapy.” Tumor neoantigens are expressed uniquely by cancer cells and can trigger an efficient immune response against the tumor. Currently the methods available to identify these antigens have significant limitations by being long, complicated and resource demanding. PeptiCHIP, an IP acquisition from the University of Helsinki, is an innovative microfluidic immune-purification device, coupled with a peptide prioritization algorithm, that can increase the chance of success of the immunotherapy by identifying the most relevant neoantigens to stimulate the immune system. It can be adapted and used in standard biopsy clinical workflows to identify antigens related to any disease. PeptiCHIP, and the insights it delivers about immune response mechanisms, has multiple applications, from research into new therapy development, through to use in the clinic in producing therapies tailored for each patient’s tumor to improve the chances of an effective immune response against and control of the tumor. Funded by the European Union. About ValoTx Valo Therapeutics Oy (Helsinki) is an immunotherapy company that is developing antigen-coated oncolytic viruses and vaccine vectors as therapeutic vaccines against cancer and infectious disease. The ValoTx lead platform, PeptiCRAd (Peptide-coated Conditionally Replicating Adenovirus), was developed out of the laboratory of Professor Vincenzo Cerullo at the University of Helsinki. It turns oncolytic adenoviruses into powerful activators of systemic anti-tumor cytotoxic T-cell immunity without the need to generate and manufacture multiple genetically modified viruses. PeptiCRAd-1 is the company’s lead product made up of its virus VALO-D102 coated with MAGE-A3 and NY-ESO-1 peptides. The company is also developing PeptiCHIP, PeptiENV and PeptiVAX, among other neoantigen strategies. Novel microchip based PeptiCHIP technology rapidly identifies a tumor’s ‘fingerprints’ to drive development of novel personalized immunotherapies. PeptiENV is expected to improve the therapeutic response to oncolytic enveloped viruses in the treatment of multiple forms of cancer, while PeptiVAX is a program to develop a novel, adaptable anti-infectives vaccination platform. Watch our film explaining the PeptiCRAd technology. For more information see our website and follow us on LinkedIn. Contacts ValoTx Matthew Vaughan matthew.vaughan@valotx.com Scius Communications (for ValoTx) Katja Stout +447789435990 katja@sciuscommunications.com Daniel Gooch +447747875479 daniel@sciuscommunications.com

HELSINKI, Finland, Jan. 11, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Valo Therapeutics Oy (ValoTx), the developer of novel, adaptable immunotherapy platforms for cancer and infectious diseases, today announced it has selected Exothera S.A., a full-service Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) specialized in gene therapy, vaccines, and oncolytic viruses, to develop a large-scale manufacturing process for clinical development of its oncolytic adenovirus, VALO-D102. ValoTx’s VALO-D102 oncolytic adenovirus is a fundamental component of the company’s proprietary PeptiCRAd (Peptide-coated Conditionally Replicating Adenovirus) immuno-oncology platform. The platform utilises a unique technology which creates electrostatic interactions between positively charged, tumour-specific peptides and the negatively charged surface of oncolytic adenoviruses. This allows an adenovirus to be used as an immunogenic carrier for the tumour-specific peptides, creating systemic tumour-targeted killer T-cell responses. Exothera brings expertise in adenovector and A549 cells with a deep knowledge of state-of-the-art manufacturing technology and DoE-based development tools. Exothera will perform tech transfer, analytical development, and scale-up to initiate manufacturing of clinical material for EU Phase II clinical trials in its GMP facility in Jumet, Belgium - one of the biggest dedicated viral vector manufacturing facilities in Europe. The facility can accommodate projects from development to manufacturing scale. Hanna Lesch, Chief Technology Officer at Exothera: “Valo Tx’s platform has the potential to turn the tide in the fight against cancer. At Exothera, we are excited to put our extensive viral vector expertise at Valo’s service for the process development and manufacturing of such a revolutionary oncolytic virus-based immunotherapy. We're proud to be one of the leaders laying down the roadmap for viral vector production to deliver exciting new cancer therapies like PeptiCRAd-1.” Petri Priha, Vice President of CMC at Valo Therapeutics: “We are reinventing cancer immunotherapy to make it more effective and accessible to cancer patients. This important work with Exothera will enable us to develop a large-scale manufacturing process for VALO-D102 to support our future clinical development plans and pave the way for future commercial-scale manufacturing.” About Valo Therapeutics Oy Valo Therapeutics Oy is an immunotherapy company that is developing innovative immunotherapy approaches against cancer and infectious disease. The ValoTx lead platform, PeptiCRAd (Peptide-coated Conditionally Replicating Adenovirus), was developed out of the laboratory of Professor Vincenzo Cerullo at the University of Helsinki. It turns oncolytic adenoviruses into targeted tissue-specific cancer vaccines without the need to generate and manufacture multiple genetically modified viruses. The company is also developing PeptiENV and PeptiVAX, among other neoantigen strategies, in collaboration with Professor Cerullo. PeptiENV is expected to improve the therapeutic response to oncolytic enveloped viruses in the treatment of multiple forms of cancer, while PeptiVAX is a platform to develop novel, adaptable anti-infective vaccines. A film all about how we are reinventing cancer immunotherapy can be found here. Website: https://www.valotx.com/ About Exothera SA Exothera is a viral vector CDMO using standard and innovative bioproduction platforms to rapidly deliver affordable viral vector-based vaccines and cell and gene therapies. As a Univercells company, Exothera capitalizes on novel manufacturing technologies and best-in-class bioprocessing expertise to provide custom-made process optimization and GMP clinical and commercial production of viral vectors. Based on its extensive technology expertise, Exothera selects technologies to optimally answer customer needs for cost-effective and agile viral vector manufacturing and provides QC services and analytical development. Website: www.exothera.world Contacts Valo Therapeutics Oy Matthew Vaughan Email: info@valotx.com Scius Communications (for ValoTx) Katja Stout +44 778 943 5990 katja@sciuscommunications.com Daniel Gooch +44 774 787 5479 daniel@sciuscommunications.com