In October 2023 Franco-Canadian Angany announced that it has received a Notice of Acceptance from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for the first clinical study of its vaccine candidate to treat human allergy to cats. This first-in-human study will evaluate the safety, allergenicity, and immunogenicity of the ANG-101 vaccine in adults allergic to cat dander.
Cat allergies
Angany states that cat allergy is a “very common and lifelong condition” that has no cure. Medications can relieve symptoms but do not prevent allergy progression. The “only” disease-modifying treatment against allergy is desensitisation, which is a form of allergen immunotherapy that requires “years” of cat allergen administration and is “associated with a poor success rate and the risk of allergic side effects”.
ANG-101
Angany’s therapeutic vaccine offers a “disruptive disease-modifying approach” for the treatment of cat allergy. The active immunotherapeutic ingredient is derived from the company’s proprietary eBioparticle-Potentiated Immunotherapy technology; it is a unique 140 nm enveloped bioparticle that “mimics a virus in shape and size”. The surface is covered with “thousands” of copies of cat major allergen Fel d 1.
“Angany’s first-in-class therapeutic vaccines are a new generation of immunotherapy biologics that are used to treat established pathologies. They are meant to restore or boost natural immune mechanisms and create sustainable immune protection and vigilance.”
HOPE
Dr Louis-Philippe Vézina, President and CEO of Angany, states that the clinical study is called “HOPE” as it should “raise new hope for millions of people affected by allergy worldwide”. He is “very pleased” at the “first step of a comprehensive clinical development programme”. Professor Stephen Durham is Head of Section for Allergy and Clinical Immunology at NHLI, Imperial College, and Professor Allergy and Respiratory Medicine at Royal Brompton Hospotal London.
“The potential treatment of cat allergy using an auto-adjuvanted vector builds upon its known ability to induce strong allergen-specific IgG antibody responses, as observed in animal models.”
Dr Guy Scadding, clinical research fellow at the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London is also hoping the vaccine will reduce the strain of treatment.
“The ultimate goal in cat allergy is to find a safe, effective, and easy to administer vaccine that will not require the long treatment and often suboptimal response currently featured by classical desensitisation method.”
For more vaccine treatment solution updates, don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
