AdaptVac’s VLP technology

The in-licensed cVLP platform

In some of ExpreS2ion’s development projects, including the ABNCoV2 COVID-19 vaccine and the ES2B-C001 HER2 breast cancer vaccine, a capsid virus-like particle (cVLP) technology platform is used to create the full vaccine. This is done by attaching the proteins developed by ExpreS2ion to the surface of a capsid, which is a protein protective shell of a virus. By doing so, the vaccine is mimicking a virus to elicit an immune response in the patient.

In August 2023, the Phase III results for the ABNCoV2 COVID-19 vaccine collectively validate the effectiveness of our ExpreS2™ antigen production system in conjunction with the VLP technology from AdaptVac. This validation will have a significant impact on how our future vaccine candidates leveraging the same technology platforms are received. Other VLP-based vaccines have a strong commercial track record in the cancer fields from its successful use to prevent HPV cancer. This is promising for ExpreS2ion’s HER2 breast cancer vaccine project, which has already achieved excellent preclinical in vivo and in vitro results.

The VLP platform in-licensed and used by ExpreS2ion was developed by Copenhagen University and then spun out into the Danish company AdaptVac ApS, of which ExpreS2ion owns 34%. This VLP platform has a high immunogenic potential due to its ability to hold full length proteins (compared to fragments in other systems), which are attached with a high density on the capsid surface. The platform can also use directional attachment compared to random orientation for other systems.