Singapore: Astellas pharma recently announced collaboration with Immunomic Therapeutics to develop and commercialize JRC2-LAMP-vax, Immunomic Therapeutics vaccine designed to treat allergies induced by Japanese red cellar pollen. The companies said in a statement that the phase I trial for the vaccine will be initiated as soon as possible.

As per the agreement, Astellas will develop and commercialize the vaccine in Japan where red cedar pollinosis is endemic. Immunomic Therapeutics will receive $15 million upon the execution of the agreement. Astellas said in a statement that Immunomic Therapeutics potentially will also receive up to $55 million in total development and regulatory milestone and technology transfer payments, as well as tiered double-digit royalties on net sales of the product.

Dr William Hearl, president and CEO of Immunomic Therapeutics, "Our Japanese red cedar allergy vaccine therapy, JRC2-LAMP-vax, will provide millions of allergic subjects a truly novel solution for long-lasting disease treatment. We are happy to partner with Astellas that is committed to developing new medicines and technologies."

"Immunomic Therapeutics uses a novel vaccine technology, LAMP-vax platform, that will offer the next-generation vaccines for allergy," commented Mr Kenji Yasukawa, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Astellas. "We are very excited to partner with Immunomic Therapeutics and we hope that we will deliver to patients a safe and game-changing therapeutic approach with a short administration period for Japanese red cedar pollinosis, from which almost one-quarter of the population in Japan are suffering."