Benefits of MIMIC™ Technology

VaxDesign's MIMIC™ technology has the potential to double the productivity of the discovery and development process for immune-related pharmaceuticals and vaccines, with cost savings in the hundreds of millions of dollars per program. Recent studies show a 90% failure rate in the clinical development of drugs and vaccines. Failure rates at the discovery stage of a project are even higher. As a result, the industry now spends nearly $1 billion to bring a successful new drug or vaccine through regulatory approval. The $1 billion cost includes the cost of all failed programs, as well as the successful programs, and also includes the cost of capital over the many years required to bring a product through the regulatory process. One of the major challenges to improving the efficiency of drug and vaccine discovery and development is translating results from test systems (e.g., animal models and cell culture assays) to real-world human outcomes. Animal models provide information about animal responses, which are often different than human responses. Cell culture assays use human cells but in a non-physiological environment, which may result in misleading responses. By contrast, MIMIC™ technology is being designed to provide clinically relevant information earlier in the development of pharmaceuticals and vaccines. MIMIC™ technology has the potential to improve substantially the efficiency of vaccine and immuno-pharmaceutical research and development.

Click the image to view a larger, more detailed version.

The MIMIC™ Model is:

• Manufacturable. MIMIC™ systems are modular, automated systems that have capacity for tens to hundreds of thousands of tests per year on a single platform
• Faster. Compared to current drug discovery times, MIMIC™ testing gives companies a huge advantage in assessing the immunogenicity of compounds in a high-throughput fashion (and a huge leap ahead of the competition). This is especially true when considering reverse vaccinology as a new way to approach vaccine discovery.

How MIMIC™ technology can be integrated into the reverse vaccinology pipeline. Collectively, this pipeline goes from Threat to Therapy in a significantly more rapid and cost-effective manner than today. Click the image to view a larger, more detailed version.

• Cost Competitive. Our costs are competitive to existing animal testing and development methods.
• More Reliable. With MIMIC™ technology, drug development companies can use reliable and well-characterized human cell sources (PBMCs). The automated design of MIMIC™ systems will enable reproducible and repeatable results. Using human donors and knowing their physiological (age, sex, blood type, disease) and vaccination history can be used.
• More Personalized Medicine. As our technical expertise and capabilities increase, we envision a day when MIMIC™ technology can be used as a way to create true personalized treatments for individuals. Imagine taking a drug developed to work specifically with your immune system to give you more effective treatment and faster recovery time.