Dr. James B. Dale

The selection committee of the World Vaccine Congress put Vaxent – a startup venture in Memphis with only two employees – alongside pharmaceutical giants Merck, Wyeth, Novartis and Sanofi Pasteur as a finalist for the Best Prophylactic Vaccine award.

Vaxent has been recognized for its StepNovA vaccine for Group A streptococcus, which causes infections as common as strep throat and as serious as flesh eating disease. Vaxent announced Monday that it had received the recognition.

Dr. James B. Dale, a professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, developed the vaccine. It is being tested in phase two early stage human clinical trials.

The vaccine was one of six finalists for the award. The winner in its category was Merck’s RotaTeq, a vaccine against Rotavirus, the leading cause of acute gastronenteritis in children.

The other finalists were the Prevnar pediatric pneumonia vaccine from Wyeth, rF1VPlague vaccine to protect against biological warfare from DVC LLC, Ixiaro vaccine to protect against Japanese encephalitis from Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics and the Pentacel vaccine to protect against children’s infectious diseases (diptheria, whooping cough, polio, tetanus and a type of influenza) from Sanofi Pasteur.

One for the little (big) guys

Vaxent has received seed funding from Innova Memphis Inc., an early stage investment fund for technology and logistics firms in Memphis.

Ken Woody, president of Innova, said he and Vaxent officials were surprised to learn the vaccine was a finalist. Established pharmaceutical companies usually dominate the finalist lists, which are selected by peer reviews.

“We literally had to call back and say ‘Are you sure you got the right company and the right group?’” Woody said. “They quickly verified it. We were stunned and obviously very pleased. I think it’s a very strong testament to how great we believe the product will be and then also great recognition for Dr. Jim Dale.”

Dale is the company’s chief scientific officer. His research into molecular pathogenesis of group A streptoccal diseases has been internationally recognized. He has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The president of Vaxent is Todd Patrick.

“Both of them are giants in their industry,” Woody said. “Todd Patrick was president of ID Biomedical, which is a $1.5 billion biotech company. Dr. Jim Dale is regarded as one of the foremost researchers in Group A streptococcus, both disease and vaccine.

“When this opportunity arose, where we could license this technology, both these guys jumped on the opportunity to form a company around that. It gives you an idea of how good they think the product is, to have a guy like Todd Patrick say, ‘Gee, I’m willing to be CEO of this company because I think we can really develop something fantastic.’”

Toward excellence

Vaxent is one of five companies to which Innova Memphis has provided funding. The others are arGentis, Extra Ortho, Cagenix Inc. and Centiba Inc.

“Our focus is to invest in companies in Memphis, Tennessee,” Woody said. “We’ve invested in five companies so far. Four of them have been bioscience companies.

“Two have been really kind of biotech companies, Vaxent and the other is arGentis. Two have really been medical device companies. One is orthopedic and one is dental implants. We think all of those have tremendous value and all of them have very strong synergy with Memphis.”

Innova was created by the Memphis Bioworks Foundation to help establish Memphis as a national center of excellence in entrepreneurship. Details are available at www.innovamemphis.com or www.memphisbioworks.org.