Poolbeg and AnaBio secure €2.3m for vaccine trial

Companies plan to develop oral vaccine platform

Dr Sinéad B. Bleiel, founder and director of AnaBio Technologies based in Carrigtowhill. Her company is focused on the microencapsulation of sensitive bioactive ingredients. Picture: Brendan Lyon

Infectious disease specialists Poolbeg Pharma has announced the consortium its runs with Cork firm AnaBio has been awarded €2.3m in grant funding to progress its platform to create new oral vaccines 

Taking place over three years, the collaboration called EncOVac between Poolbeg Pharma, University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and AnaBio Technologies will result in the development of an oral vaccine candidate to a Phase I ready state. The resulting technology will then serve as a platform for additional oral vaccine candidates for a wide range of pathogens, initially targeting bacterial infections.

Poolbeg licensed AnaBio's microencapsulation and nanoencapsulation technologies for use in the development and commercialisation of oral vaccines in January 2022.

AnaBio, based in Carrigtwohill is headed by Dr Sinead Bleiel and is focused on microencapsulation of sensitive bioactive ingredients for food, beverage and pharmaceutical applications.

Poolbeg Pharma is headquartered in London but was spun out from Irish firm Open Orphan.

The funding has been granted under the Irish Government's Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund ('DTIF'). It's a €500m fund to support collaboration between Ireland's research base and industry. EncOVac hopes that by delivering vaccines to the gut, oral vaccines can trigger 'mucosal immunity' that results in a response in the areas of the body where a pathogen would be inhaled or ingested such as the nose and digestive tracts. Unlike intramuscular injections, this approach prevents infections from taking hold in the body by counteracting them at the point of entry. 

Pollbeg Pharma is targeting the growing infectious disease market. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, infectious disease has become one of the fastest-growing pharma markets and is expected to exceed $250bn by 2025.

"The funding will support the progression of this exciting oral vaccine platform that has the potential to improve the ways vaccines are manufactured, distributed and administered for the future. Poolbeg continues to target non-dilutive funding opportunities and we are delighted that this DTIF award is our first success," Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma said.

Dr Sinéad Bleiel of AnaBio Technologies said: "Having demonstrated the potential of our encapsulation technology to deliver drug products safely and effectively to the gut, we are excited to collaborate with the EncOVac team of world-class researchers, led by Poolbeg and supported by the Irish Government as part of the world's renewed fight against infectious diseases."