PR93378

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Dec. 01, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Today EpiVax, Inc. ("EpiVax") confirmed that the company's EPV-CoV-19 (
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3374427-1&h=2470375866&u=https%3A%2F%2Fepivax.com%2Fpipeline%2Fepv-cov19&a=EPV-CoV-19
) vaccine epitopes are 98.2% conserved in the new Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant.
EpiVax and EpiVax Therapeutics, Inc. ("EVT") are also affirming commitment to
move the novel T cell epitope vaccine into the clinic in 2022. EPV-CoV-19 is
intended for use to protect against variants of concern (VOC) after primary
SARS-CoV-2 exposure or vaccination and is nearing the clinical phase of
development while formulation, IND-filing, and clinical trial protocol are
finalized.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/542055/EpiVax_Logo.jpg

EPV-CoV-19 will boost T cell response, a key contributor to immune protection
against SARS-CoV-2. Using proprietary immunoinformatics tools, EpiVax selected
highly immunogenic sequences (T cell epitopes) conserved across all new types
of SARS-COV-2, including alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omicron. Today's
analysis of 188,758 SARS-CoV-2 sequences revealed that the vaccine epitopes are
97-99% conserved against VOC. Despite the very high number of mutations in the
Omicron VOC, only three of 164 vaccine epitopes are expected to be ineffective
in protecting against Omicron VOC.

Most COVID vaccine developers have focused on antibody response to the pandemic
virus while EpiVax experts, leading the world in computational vaccine design,
have steadfastly observed that vaccine-induced T cell responses play a
significant role in protection afforded by exposure and vaccination. EpiVax
focused on identifying the highest quality (highly immunogenic) epitopes that
are cross-conserved across coronavirus strains, to create a vaccine likely to
be effective against all SARS-CoV-2 variants identified to date or emerging
soon, including Omicron, and the vaccine epitopes were shown to be effective in
human in vitro and murine in vivo studies (
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-021-00331-6 ). EPV-CoV-19 has been
licensed to EVT, a privately held, investor-backed company also located in RI.

About EpiVax:

EpiVax is a biotechnology company with expertise in T cell epitope prediction,
immune modulation, and rapid vaccine design. EpiVax's immunogenicity screening
toolkits, ISPRI (
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3374427-1&h=3941252748&u=https%3A%2F%2Fepivax.com%2Fimmunogenicity-assessment%2Fispri-web-based-immunogenicity-screening&a=ISPRI
) and iVAX (
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3374427-1&h=890433383&u=https%3A%2F%2Fepivax.com%2Fimmunogenicity-assessment%2Fivax-web-based-vaccine-design&a=iVAX
), are employed in advancing the research of a global roster of companies.

For more information about EpiVax, visit www.epivax.com.

About EVT:

EVT employs world-leading technology from EpiVax to design therapeutics that
activate T cells to cure or prevent disease. EVT's pipeline includes a COVID-19
vaccine and a personalized bladder cancer vaccine. For more information about
EPV-CoV-19, visit this link (
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3374427-1&h=66216306&u=https%3A%2F%2Fc212.net%2Fc%2Flink%2F%3Ft%3D0%26l%3Den%26o%3D3024498-1%26h%3D2766501294%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fepivax.com%252Fpipeline%252Fepv-cov19%26a%3Dthis%2Blink&a=this+link
), or contact Nicole Ruggiero ( nruggiero@epivax.com ), COO of EVT.

For more information about EVT, visit www.epivaxtx.com.

Click here for an expanded version of this release. (
https://epivax.com/news/epivax-continues-to-progress-on-a-vaccine-to-address-sars-cov-2-variants
)

Press Contact:
Katie Porter, Business Development Manager
EpiVax
kporter@epivax.com

SOURCE: EpiVax Inc.