FRANCE — EverImmune, a biotechnology company specialized in the development of live biotherapeutic products in the field of microbiota oncology has appointed its scientific advisory board, which will be chaired by Prof. Laurence Zitvogel.
Prof. Laurence Zitvogel is a French physician specializing in oncology and immunology with a large research experience in exosomes and the biological impact of those structures in malignant neoplasms.
Prof. Laurence Zitvogel doubles up as the company’s co-founder and director of immuno-oncology research at the Gustave Roussy Institute in Paris, France.
The board also welcomes four international specialists in clinical development, cancer immunotherapy and microbiome biology including Prof. Jennifer Wargo (USA), Dr. Jean-Pierre Bizarri (USA), Prof. Christian Jobin (USA), and Dr. Lisa Derosa (France).
EverImmune was founded in 2016 as a spinoff from Gustave Roussy; Europe’s first cancer institute, based near Paris, France.
It harnesses the gut microbiota for the development of a unique theragnostic approach combining diagnostic and therapeutic technologies to restore the response to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICIs) in cancer patients.
The company’s flagship product, Oncobax AK (Akkermansia), is a Live Biotherapeutic Product (LBP) used as an oral adjuvant to anticancer immunotherapies.
This technology is designed to safely boost the immune system and restore sensitivity to immunotherapies in primary resistance settings.
The company started its first Phase I clinical trial for Oncobax AK in Q3, 2022 – in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) and Renal Cell Cancer (RCC), according to the company’s press statement.
ICIs are anticancer immunotherapies that have revolutionized the clinical management of many tumor types with previously poor prognoses, including renal and advanced lung cancer.
They can be used alone or in combination with other cancer treatments. However, responses to ICIs are variable, with patients developing primary or secondary resistance, and they can be transient.
It is critical to identify the parameters that modulate anticancer immunity in order for anticancer therapeutics to be effective.
Over the last decade, evidence has accumulated highlighting the role of the gut microbiota in the efficacy of anticancer immunotherapies in preclinical tumor models as well as in cancer patients.
Everimmune’s founders were pioneers in the discovery of the prognostic role of microbiota composition for the clinical benefit of these patients treated with immunotherapy, as well as in the demonstration of the adjuvanting role of certain intestinal bacteria to boost antitumor immunity and to counteract primary resistance to treatment.
EverImmune discovered Akkermansia (AK) as commensal bacteria that influence the efficacy of anti-cancer immunotherapies in patients with lung or kidney cancer.
This was demonstrated by the company’s extensive preclinical research. The findings were confirmed in animal models using tumor-bearing mice.
Oncobax AK is an ICI-based immunotherapy adjuvant containing a specific strain of Akkermansia.
EverImmune also develops a broader pipeline of products comprising additional bacteria endowed with robust adjuvant potential in different types of cancer, such as breast and colon cancers.
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