Office of Corporate Alliances, University of Rochester Medical Center

Connecting corporate and academic researchers to advance science and human health

  

 

Vaccinex Inc.

Therapeutic antibodies are one of the fastest growing segments of the biotechnology sector and represent 20% of the products in the biotechnology development pipeline. Vaccinex has developed ActivMAb, the only library-based antibody discovery technology that can express complete, fully functional antibodies in mammalian cells. By employing a proprietary Vaccinia virus-based expression vector and separate immunoglobulin heavy and light chain libraries, Vaccinex achieves high levels of combinatorial diversity resulting in an increased likelihood of identifying antibodies with high affinity, high specificity, and the desired function. Both membrane-bound and secreted antibodies can be generated against targets that elude traditional antibody discovery technologies, such as membrane-associated receptors and highly conserved proteins.

Vaccinex was founded in 1997 by Maurice Zauderer, Ph.D., and Deepak Sahasrabudhe, M.D. based on technology discovered at the University of Rochester. The company has three issued patents and has submitted 20 applications in the U.S. and internationally. Vaccinex currently has three antibody product candidates in its development pipeline: C35 for breast cancer, BVX-10 for inflammation and BVX-20 for oncology. The company has also established revenue-generating antibody discovery agreements and manufacturing collaborations with business partners including Biocon Limited, Opi, and Lonza Biologics.

To date, Vaccinex has raised more than $24 million in funding from venture and strategic investors and has received $10 million in research grants. The company is headquartered in a state-of-the-art facility in Rochester, NY and currently employs 46 individuals.

To read more about Vaccinex, visit their web site.