ProJect Pharmaceutics and ImevaX have entered an agreement they hope will lead to the development of a formulation for IMX101, a recombinant vaccine against Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium linked to gastric ulcers. The firms say that the formulation development will be a challenge for them as IMX101 is a multicomponent vaccine. 

The contract, according to the firms, covers activities in developing a rational formulation based on Predictive Formulation Analytics, a technology introduced by ProJect Pharmaceutics in December 2011 that allows users to design optimized protein formulations by determining the most favorable composition for the native structure of the protein with regard to its intra- and intermolecular physicochemical properties. ProJect Pharmaceuticals says the technology uses analytical methods to characterize the physicochemical state of proteins and analyze their response to certain excipients, allowing users to identify promising formulation candidates quickly.

ImevaX is a spin-off project from the research group of Markus Gerhard, Ph.D., from the Technische Universität München (Technical University of Munich), Institute for Medicinal Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene. As part of the GO-Bio start-up program of the German Ministry of Research and Education, the spin-out aims to develop highly specific vaccines against pathogens that cause chronic infectious diseases. Plans to found ImevaX as a biotech company in 2014 are currently in the works.

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