Consortium to Develop Vaccine for Graves Disease

A consortium including GSK Vaccines, Quintiles, KWS Biotest Ltd and lead drug discovery and development company Apitope, has been awarded Framework Programme 7 (FP7) Health Innovation funding by the European Commission to develop its Graves’ disease therapeutic vaccine, including a Phase I first-in-man study in Graves’ disease patients.

The disorder leads to overproduction of thyroid hormones (hyperthyroidism) and affects multiple systems of the body, including the skin, heart, circulation and nervous system. Apitope’s peptide therapy selectively shuts down abnormal immune responses to the causative agent, re-instating the normal immune balance.

Dr. Keith Martin, CEO of Apitope stated: “Graves’ Disease is a disease with serious implications particularly for those with Graves’ orbitopathy who are at risk of blindness.  Current treatments for this disease may result in abnormally low thyroid activity levels, requiring further medications, and do not treat the fundamental cause of Graves’ disease nor reduce the long term cardiac risks. This funding will allow a team of experts to develop a much needed therapy that may address the cause of this serious condition rather than simply treating the symptoms and removing the need for other medications.”

Professor Neil Williams, CSO of KWS BioTest said: “This is a really exciting approach to the treatment of an important human disease, which builds on the successes that Apitope has seen in its MS programme.  We are looking forward to applying our expertise in the preclinical immunology and inflammation areas to help drive the project forwards into the clinic. The award of the EU grant helps to cement the close drug discovery partnership in the consortium.”