CORPORATE OVERVIEW
In 2002, Stephen Isaacs decided to invest in an immunotherapy program from scratch. He assembled a team, and after they completed extensive research, they chose Listeria monocytogenes, which has been used as a research tool for more than 50 years because of its ability to induce potent cellular immunity. Listeria is a common environmental pathogen, which makes its use as a vaccine somewhat counter-intuitive, but the research team engineered two distinct strains to be safe for use in humans while continuing to induce robust immune responses. These advances have been published in 20 major studies and have generated more than $20 million in grant funding.
Listeria’s unique combination of attributes makes it an ideal platform for prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. It effectively stimulates two forms of immunity (innate and adaptive); it can be administered repeatedly without losing potency; it can increase the potency of other vaccines and treatments when used in combination; and it can be manufactured at relatively low cost.
Aduro's therapeutic vaccines have already been tested in three Phase 1 clinical safety trials in cancer and infectious disease with a total of 30 patients, and Aduro is currently planning Phase 2A and Phase 1B cancer trials with its lead therapeutic, CRS-207.
In addition to building its own proprietary pipeline, Aduro is actively seeking partnerships and contract research agreements to develop new vaccines and to boost the efficacies of other vaccines and treatments. Aduro can engineer a new vaccine strain and have it ready for clinical testing within 12 months.