Brian Pfister

Emergex, a clinical-stage, privately-held biotechnology company headquartered in Abingdon, UK, with an operating subsidiary in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, USA, is pioneering the development of 100% synthetic T cell-priming immune set-point vaccine candidates that harness and direct the body’s natural CD8+ T cell immune response to destroy and clear pathogen-infected cells in order to provide protection against some of the world’s most urgent health threats. First indications pursued are against infectious diseases caused by: [i] viruses, amongst which are Betacoronavirus, Dengue Fever and Universal Influenza A, including pandemic influenza, as well as [ii] intra-cellular bacteria. Emergex has a growing proprietary pipeline of innovative T cell-priming set-point candidates that have the potential to deliver rapid, broad (strain and variant agnostic) and long-lasting prevention and therapy to reduce serious illness associated with infectious disease. Emergex has completed two Phase I clinical trials for products against: [i] Dengue (which may also be disease-modifying for other members of the Flaviviridae virus family) and [ii] Betacoronavirus disease. Other programmes in development include candidates for Universal (including pandemic) Influenza, Zika, Chikungunya, Smallpox/Monkeypox, Hand/Foot/Mouth Disease a booster for Yellow Fever, and Francisella tularensis (intra-cellular bacterium). Emergex’s T cell-priming immune set-point candidates combine two proprietary technologies, [i] an empirically determined library of pathogen-derived protein fragments expressed on the surface of pathogen-infected cells (forming the MHC Class I expression “ligandome” library) using Immunotope Inc’s immunoproteomics technologies, and [ii] a self-assembling, ultrasmall carbohydrate-passivated nanocluster carrier system designed to deliver synthetic peptides to the skin-resident immune system via micro-needles to elicit a robust T cell response.