What's Next For Etherna's Earlier Assets, Alliances

Etherna’s new strategic pivot will mean that the Belgian company will no longer further develop its original pipeline products including the potentially best-in-class mRNA cancer vaccine for recurrent/metastatic Human Papillomavirus strain 16 positive (HPV16+) cancers such as head and neck cancer, cervical cancer and anogenital cancer.

Interim CEO Bernard Sagaert explained that the firm now intends to partner these assets out but highlighted that the pipeline actually has duality - “it's a product but it's also a platform”.

“For instance, the HPV asset – you can use it in HPV, but the platform can be used in other areas as well, because it's one of the first RNA products that when injected intravenously goes preferentially to the spleen and less to the liver, which means that you get an immune reaction in the spleen, which is a lot better than what you get in the liver,” he asserted.

The vaccine project had in 2021 received a grant of EUR6.9m from the EU Commission and the antigens therein comprise mRNAs encoding the HPV16 proteins E6 and E7 as well as Etherna’s proprietary TriMix mRNAs.

TriMix acts as an adjuvant to activate dendritic cells to induce strong T-cell responses to the antigens.

“It is in a stage where for the interested party, they can kick off really quickly because we have the product available, the CTAs [clinical trial approval] are granted in a couple of countries in Europe. So, they actually would be able to start a clinical trial almost in months,” he added.

Negotiations are underway with some interested parties, though it’s not clear if any of the big pharma players already vested in the HPV segment are among those in the fray.

In the case of Etherna’s cooperation and product license agreement with Grandpharma (China) Co Ltd, which was struck prior to the former’s new strategic orientation, things appear to be in a state of transition. The partners had in 2020 formed a joint venture company, Nanjing AuroRNA Biotechnology Co., Ltd. in Mainland China to deploy Etherna’s proprietary mRNA technology for pharmaceutical R&D and production in the Greater China Region.

Sagaert indicated that COVID has not made things easy with the joint venture because of the “impossibility of traveling”, though Etherna had been able to transfer knowledge to the extent that “they [the Chinese partner] are now independently capable of making RNA and making LNPs. And they are continuing the development of the products that we have transferred to them. “

However, with the changed business model, Etherna would likely prefer to pursue the “standardized approach” in in deal-making, rather than the joint venture structure.

Backed By Big Names, Etherna Hopes To Disrupt mRNA Space

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