A Cincinnati-based startup working to develop a universal flu vaccine has taken a meaningful step in bringing that technology to market.
Blue Water Vaccines, a downtown-headquartered biopharma company, announced this week it has exclusive rights to a new United States patent awarded to its licensor, Oxford University Innovation Limited.
The patent award is a meaningful step, Blue Water said. Blue Water Vaccines has had a license agreement with Oxford University Innovation Limited since July 2019. The U.S. patent — coupled with Blue Water’s exclusive rights — means the company’s competition cannot use the technology, called epitopes of limited variability, discovered by the team at Oxford, which Blue Water believes will drive development of a universal influenza vaccine candidate.
The company declined to comment further on the timeline for the vaccine but said the patent award will aid in its development and manufacturing.
"With our partnership with Oxford University and the award of this new patent, we are one step closer to bringing next generation vaccine technology to the fight against influenza,” Joe Hernandez, CEO of Blue Water Vaccines, said in a release.
According to the World Health Organization, there are normally more than 1 billion influenza infections leading to 290,000-650,000 deaths each year. The most effective way to prevent illness from influenza infection is vaccination, but current influenza vaccines are limited, the company said. Per the CDC, current vaccine effectiveness ranges from 20%-60% each year.
The patent — United States patent No. 11,123,442 — includes claims directed to specific compositions of polypeptides, or epitopes of limited variability, and methods of treating influenza infection with the compositions.
Blue Water’s license agreement with Oxford University Innovation Limited grants Blue Water Vaccines exclusive worldwide patent rights to technology including key polypeptides invented by Oxford scientists Sunetra Gupta and Craig Thompson.
The rights granted are exclusive for the development, use and sale of a vaccine candidate using the epitopes of limited variability. Under the terms of the agreement, Blue Water Vaccines will pay milestone payments, subject to the achievement of certain key development and commercial milestones, and royalties on sales.
The patent is not projected to expire until at least 2037.
"We are making meaningful progress," Gupta said. "With these methods, now patented in the U.S., we believe we can change the landscape of vaccines and reduce the number deaths attributable to influenza.”
Blue Water, formed in 2018 and backed by local investor group CincyTech, is developing a universal influenza vaccine, or a single-dose vaccine that would provide lifelong protection against all flu strains, as well as an H1N1 vaccine candidate. Both utilize the epitopes of limited variability covered in the patent.
The company also has a vaccine candidate for streptococcus pneumoniae, designed to specifically prevent middle ear infections, known as acute otitis media, or AOM, in children.
Due to Covid, the Blue Water team continues to work remotely. The company sold its Norwood headquarters, the former Norwood Baptist Church school building on Courtland Avenue, earlier this year. It lists its new address as 201 E. Fifth St. downtown.
To date, Blue Water has raised $7 million in capital.
