Everest Medicines achieves preclinical proof-of-concept milestone for its mRNA rabies vaccine programme

Everest Medicines, a biopharmaceutical company, announced that the company has achieved the preclinical proof-of-concept milestone for its mRNA rabies vaccine programme. This new vaccine candidate for rabies post-exposure prophylactic was developed in partnership with Providence Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (Providence) utilizing a clinically validated mRNA technology platform. “The mRNA rabies vaccine program is an important validation of our discovery capability and the mRNA platform as the first of several non-Covid mRNA vaccine/therapeutics candidates,” said Rogers Yongqing Luo, chief executive officer of Everest Medicines.

“We continue to advance our Omicron-containing bivalent booster candidate, EVER-Covid19-M1.2, in China and other Everest territories and plan to initiate clinical trials in 2023. Building on the momentum of promising mRNA infectious disease vaccine candidates, we are well-positioned to continue innovating novel candidates using this mRNA technology platform across a wide range of disease indications.” In a head-to-head immunogenicity comparison study with a commercial inactivated rabies vaccine, mice dosed with Everest’s pre-clinical rabies vaccine candidate produced higher levels of serum neutralizing antibodies than those of mice dosed with the comparator vaccine.

Everest’s candidate also induced a significantly higher degree of T-cell-mediated immune response than the comparator vaccine. These positive results support the clinical development of the rabies vaccine. Everest and Providence hold 50/50 global rights to develop and commercialize the new rabies vaccine. Rabies is a zoonotic, viral disease. While it remains a serious threat to public health, the disease is vaccine-preventable with proper treatment. Every year, more than 29 million people worldwide receive a post-bite rabies vaccination, which – if received soon after exposure – can effectively prevent the onset of symptoms.

Once clinical symptoms appear, however, the disease is virtually 100% fatal. Notably, over 95% of human deaths from rabies occur in the Asia and Africa regions, predominately affecting vulnerable populations who live in remote rural locations. Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is the immediate treatment of a bite victim after rabies exposure, which includes delivering a course of a potent and effective rabies vaccine as well as immediate wound washing and administration of rabies immunoglobulin. Everest Medicines is a biopharmaceutical firm focused on developing and commercializing transformative pharmaceutical products that address critical unmet medical needs for patients in Asian markets.