New York biotech is partnering with researchers at Columbia, Kansas State and Southern Research to address the pandemic.

Vaccibody AS’ platform can develop vaccines that can drive the immune response in specific directions and thus optimize the vaccine for different diseases – for example, toward the T-cell cell-mediated response for therapeutic vaccines, or the B-cell antibody-mediated response for prophylactic vaccines. The start-up’s lead vaccine is a therapeutic one, targeting precancerous lesions and malignancies in the cervix caused by human papillomavirus. Safety and toxicity studies are under way, and clinical trials are planned for early 2014.

The project that prompted the formation of Serodus AS is no longer the driving force of this start-up company. But the founding research did spark a deal that brought the firm a similar but more advanced asset, now one of three the firm is developing for cardiovascular indications ranging from high systolic blood pressure to atrial fibrillation to heart failure. Serodus in-licensed its lead candidate, a peptide classified as an opioid receptor agonist from Zealand Pharma, which took the compound through several clinical trials in both acute and chronic heart failure. Serodus thinks it could potentially develop a 5-HT-4 receptor antagonist it calls SER102 for atrial fibrillation that occurs in connection with surgery.

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