Meissa Vaccines Closes $3.4 Million Financing to Advance RSV Vaccine to Clinic

March 27, 2019 Off By BusinessWire

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/RSV?src=hash” target=”_blank”gt;#RSVlt;/agt;–Meissa
Vaccines (“Meissa”), a biotechnology company developing vaccines to
prevent viral respiratory infections, announced today that it has closed
a $3.4 million seed round to further develop its investigational vaccine
for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The financing included numerous
undisclosed individual investors and will be used to advance the
company’s RSV vaccine candidate into clinical trials. To support these
efforts, Meissa has had a successful FDA pre-IND meeting, completed
manufacturing of clinical trial material, and recruited two outside
industry veterans, Kenneth Kelley and William Daly, to join the
company’s board of directors.

“I’m incredibly proud of the progress our team is making with our RSV
vaccine candidate in terms of preclinical data and clinical trial
material manufacturing,” said Martin Moore, Ph.D., cofounder, and CEO of
Meissa. “Using human codon deoptimization and reverse genetics, our team
has developed a live attenuated vaccine with global utility. Our
potential game-changing universal pediatric RSV vaccine can be delivered
as a single, intranasal dose.”

Prior to this latest seed round, Meissa had been awarded several highly
competitive small business innovation research (SBIR) grants from the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund Meissa’s vaccine research
and development. Meissa completed a pre-Investigational New Drug (IND)
meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year to
ensure the company’s preclinical work was appropriately focused and
would enable eventual human testing.

The seed funds have already enabled completion of manufacturing of
clinical trial materials for Phase 1 and Phase 2 testing in adults and
children, as well as for the advancement of vaccine candidates for human
metapneumovirus and parainfluenza virus using the same technology
platform. Meissa’s proprietary technologies of reverse genetics and
human codon deoptimization allow for rapid generation of live attenuated
vaccine candidates that may be safer yet more immunogenic than the
natural pathogens and give them ideal properties for manufacturing and
distribution.

“Meissa has significantly de-risked its lead vaccine candidate for RSV
based on preclinical work and manufacturing process development and
established a capital and time efficient development plan to potentially
demonstrate safety and efficacy in both pediatrics and the elderly,”
said Kenneth Kelley, former founder and CEO of specialty vaccine company
PaxVax, recently sold to Emergent BioSolutions, Inc. “Their technology
can be applied to additional respiratory viruses to encompass a
portfolio of products and upside for the company.”

“The RSV market is commonly understood to represent a $6 billion
opportunity, which is the largest remaining commercial opportunity in
infectious disease vaccines,” said William Daly, who has held numerous
senior business development, operations and finance positions at leading
biotech and pharmaceutical companies including Portola Pharmaceuticals,
Cougar Biotechnology, Akebia Therapeutics, Novartis, Janssen (Johnson &
Johnson), and Allergan. “All of the major vaccine manufacturers are
looking for a viable vaccine for pediatrics and the elderly. The Meissa
RSV vaccine can address both markets by using two distinct doses and
formulations.”

About Meissa Vaccines

Meissa is a private biotech company focused on the advancement of
vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the largest unmet
respiratory medical need in pediatrics, and human metapneumovirus and
parainfluenza virus, the next most significant respiratory diseases
worldwide. Meissa was founded on proprietary technologies employing
synthetic biologic and reverse genetics to create safer, more effective
live vaccines. The technology is exclusively licensed from Emory
University. Dr. Moore, together with Dr. Roderick Tang, a vaccine
manufacturing expert, co-founded Meissa. They are supported by a team
with extensive experience in all aspects of vaccine development. Meissa
is currently a resident company at the Johnson & Johnson Innovation
JLABS in South San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.meissavaccines.com.