Treatments for autoimmune diseases are currently being developed by a licensee of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in conjunction with two significant pharmaceutical companies.
Nanolipoprotein particles (NLPs), which can deliver vaccines and medications inside the cells in the human body, were licensed by LLNL to Ann Arbor, Michigan-based EVOQ Therapeutics in late 2017.
EVOQ Therapeutics has announced two significant collaborations with Gilead Sciences Inc. and Amgen Inc. over the past two years to work on the preclinical development of new drugs to treat autoimmune diseases. The platform for delivering the vaccine could be a portion of the NLP technology created by LLNL.
In January, Foster City, California-based Gilead Sciences and EVOQ announced they will collaborate on the preclinical development of vaccines to treat rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. The EVOQ technology is designed to enable lymph targeted delivery of disease-specific antigens for autoimmune diseases.
Under its agreement with Gilead Sciences, EVOQ could receive up to $658.4 million in upfront, option exercise and other payments, in addition to royalties on product sales.
In its expanded pact with Amgen, EVOQ Therapeutics granted the Thousand Oaks California-based firm exclusive rights to selected autoimmune programs and received an upfront payment and other payments potentially totaling more than $240 million, along with royalties on sales of resulting therapies. Amgen is working to develop vaccines for three autoimmune diseases.
