Update on Continued Research in Oncology

Abera Bioscience AB (“Company” or “Abera”) initiated research and development in immuno-oncology in 2021 with a first sub-goal to explore the potential of the company’s platform in the area and to carry out initial studies for further prioritization. In accordance with the press release regarding a private placement sent out December 23rd, in which Abera informed about a continued and increased investment in immuno-oncology, the company would like to further report on the continued plans.

Abera is a biotechnology company with several proprietary vaccine platforms. The company has a vaccine candidate against pneumococcus that is being prepared for clinical phase evaluation and several pre-clinical vaccine candidates against other bacterial and viral infections. These are so-called prophylactic vaccines that teach the immune system to attack and get rid of hostile “invaders in the body” before disease can develop. During the last ten years, research has made great strides towards the application of such immunization strategies also in a more therapeutic fashion, so to treat already existing diseases. Several concepts have been developed to exploit the body’s own immune system to fight cancer, an approach dubbed immuno-oncology.

In 2021, Abera conducted a number of studies to explore the applicability of the platforms in several immuno-oncological concepts. Based on the results of these studies and on further promising results presented in scientific literature, the company has decided to accelerate the development within the immuno-oncology field in two priority focus areas – therapeutic vaccines and vectors for “drug delivery”.

As a first priority, Abera will conduct studies within the concept of therapeutic vaccines and apply  the company’s platform BERA to present tumor antigens (i.e. proteins that are unique to tumors and are not found in healthy cells) to the human body to effectively trigger the immune system to attack tumors. It is a challenge to create an immune response to tumor antigens, but Abera’s OMV (Outer Membrane Vesicles) platform BERA, with its immunostimulatory effect and ability to deliver high amounts of multiple different antigens, is in a good place to induce increased efficacy. The company plans studies in the field of cancer with the aim of generating proof of concept to support future commercial collaborations. In the studies, Abera’s platform will also be used together with existing cancer drugs to study possible positive synergies.

Previous studies have indicated that Abera’s platform is also well suited for use a vector for ‘drug delivery’ to the tumor and the company will, as a secondary goal, investigate to what extent we can expand this capacity and what limitations there are for application in cancer therapy.

Our development of platforms and early concepts in the field of oncology will continue with undiminished strength through academic collaborations. Abera may expand these efforts if work effort is judged to be reasonable in relation to potential outcomes, and provided that the research conducted is reasonably close to the market.

The market for immuno-oncology was valued at $ 85 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to $ 277 billion by 2030, according to a report by Precedence Research (1).

Abera keeps it main focus on preparing its vaccine candidate against pneumococcus for testing in clinical trials. As this development enters a new stage during the year, with implementation of external partners to conduct e.g. GMP manufacturing and tox studies, research resources will be released that can drive other projects forward.

“It feels exciting that we are now genuinely starting to apply our platform in immuno-oncology. We see how more players have started to use OMV technology in oncology, and it is our firm belief that Abera’s platform has several competitive advantages and that we are the absolute forefront of the technology. Since our platform works in a plug’n’play-like manner, we can conceptually have OMVs available in the freezer any time and only need to have the antigens manufactured with which these are to be decorated. This means that in a short time we can develop a vaccine unique to the tumor to be treated. It is a growing area with great potential where our platform could add clear value in the development of tumor-specific treatments”, comments Maria Alriksson, CEO of Abera Bioscience.