The Belgian Biotech Company Delphi Genetics SA is proud to announce the launch of a newly-funded project. Together with academic and Biotech key-players, the company will participate in the development of DNA vaccines using the Staby® technology (antibiotic-free) during the next 3 years. The objective of the project funded by the Walloon region (BioWin project, 2.3 M €) is to develop and produce antibiotic-free DNA vaccines targeting some veterinary diseases.

 

The project also involves Eurogentec SA, another Belgian Biotech company (part of Kaneka) in charge of large scale DNA production and purification, and two universities: the Catholic University of Louvain in charge of the pharmaceutical and toxicity aspects of the project and the University of Liège in charge of the vaccinology and veterinary issues. “All partners complement one another perfectly” said Cédric Szpirer, CEO and Head of R&D of Delphi Genetics SA and explained:

 

“Today vaccination is an uncontested way of fighting disease. DNA vaccination seems to be a particularly promising method at this time, especially in the case of veterinary diseases. However, antibiotic-resistance genes are conventionally used during the construction of DNA vaccines but the resistance is increasingly less tolerated by regulatory agencies (FDA, USDA and EMA). In the context of this project, we propose to replace the antibiotic-resistance gene by the Staby® technology developed by Delphi Genetics and already used for production of recombinant proteins (higher yields and no antibiotics). In order to show the efficiency of our technology, we will develop new veterinary vaccines, we will validate that the method is usable for high scale DNA production and we will show its innocuousness.”

 

 

Founded at the end of 2001, Delphi Genetics SA develops technologies for genetic engineering and protein expression by using unique expertise in the domain of plasmid stabilisation systems.

 

Since 2004, Delphi Genetics has been marketing innovative kits for researchers. Some of these kits contain technologies that have since been licensed for industrial applications; in 2009 Delphi Genetics announced a non-exclusive licence agreement with Sanofi-Pasteur, the human vaccine division of Sanofi and a non-exclusive agreement with GSK in 2010. These agreements allow Sanofi-Pasteur and GSK to apply the StabyExpress® technology in the production of recombinant proteins, thus enabling them to produce a high yield without using antibiotics.

 

 

Eurogentec
Eurogentec is a cGMP accredited Contract Manufacturing Organization (CMO) offering process development and cGMP manufacturing services since 1994. Eurogentec manufactures recombinant proteins, plasmids, vaccines and conjugates in compliance with EU 2003/94/EC and US FDA 21CFR 210 and operates a full-service, state-of-the-art cGMP facility located in Belgium. In 2010, Eurogentec became part of Kaneka Corporation, Osaka, Japan.

Contact :Florence Xhonneux, Business Development

 

University of Liège:

The laboratory of Immunology-Vaccinology of the veterinary faculty of the University of Liège is led by Prof. A. Vanderplasschen. This laboratory is at the origin of several innovations in the field of veterinary vaccinology.

 

Catholic University of Louvain

The team of Professor Préat (Louvain Drug Research Institute) is specialized in non viral delivery of DNA for gene therapy and vaccine. The consortium will notably benefit from their knowledge in electroporation of DNA.