Neovacs receives €963,000 payment from OSEO
First milestone payment for Tracker rheumatoid arthritis project
Neovacs, a French biotech company focused on active immunotherapy technology (Kinoids) for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases and cancer, has received a €963,000 payment from OSEO, the French state innovation agency, for the Tracker rheumatoid arthritis project. The payment was according to the schedule laid out in the contract signed in 2008 and follows the presentation of the results of the first phase of the project.
‘The payment from OSEO rewards the good progress made in the development of our drug-candidate TNF-Kinoïd to treat patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and who have developed resistance to the current treatments with TNF antibodies,’ said Guy-Charles de La Horie, ceo of Neovacs.
The Tracker project aims to develop a treatment for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The most effective drugs currently available, anti-TNF monoclonal antibodies, rapidly induce antibodies that neutralise them increasingly over time. These antibodies lead to resistance and/or intolerance to the treatment, which subsequently becomes ineffective and/or toxic. The primary objective of Tracker is to validate the diagnostic tools produced by Biomedical Diagnostics (BMD) to evaluate these neutralising antibodies and to test the therapeutic solution developed by Neovacs involving active anti-TNF immunisation.
The OSEO funding totals €7.9m, with €6.4m for Neovacs.