EXCLUSIVE: Ocean Biomedical's Co-Founder Outlines Detailed Data From Malaria Vaccine At Conference

by Vandana Singh, Benzinga Editor
April 25, 2023 7:30 AM | 1 min read |
  • Ocean Biomedical Inc's OCEA co-founder, Jonathan Kurtis, presented details of the company's malaria vaccine and treatment approach at the PATH Malaria's annual retreat in Washington, DC.
  • Most recently, Kurtis received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for his U.S. patent application covering a therapeutic and prophylactic monoclonal antibody that kills falciparum malaria parasites. 
  • Dr. Kurtis shared details of Ocean Biomedical's anti-malaria vaccine that targets three critical 'blood stage' events: entry into the red blood cell (via discovered PfXXX), intracellular development (via PfGARP), and escape of parasites from the red blood cells (via PfSEA-1). 
  • The company is also working to develop the PfGARP component as a therapeutic target for a whole new class of antimalarial drugs.
  • Pfxxx blocks invasion; PfGARP kills intercellular parasites; PfSEA1 blocks egress.
  • Vaccination of monkeys with mRNA encoding PfGARP protects against the P. falciparum (malaria-causing parasites) challenge.
  • In addition to his vaccine development work, Dr. Kurtis presented new data demonstrating that PfGARP is critical for regulating parasite density and thus results in increased reproductive fitness of the parasite. 
  • Dr. Kurtis presented data on a family of small molecule drugs highly specific for PfGARP binding are non-toxic in multiple in vitro and in vivo systems, have favorable pharmacokinetic properties, and rapidly kill P. falciparum parasites in animal models. 
  • Malaria killed approximately 627,000 individuals in 2022. Artemisinin-based drug therapy remains the mainstay of treatment, but the spread of parasites resistant to this family of compounds is threatening.
  • Price Action: OCEA shares are up 5.52% at $7.07 premarket on the last check Tuesday.
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