2 August, 2006

Drug discovery, Herbal medicine/Nutraceuticals

Patented technology for an adjuvant with the active substance polysaccharide for oral/nasal vaccines against influenza and bird influenza, targeted to the aging population.

PHN032 is a fraction of polysaccharides extracted from a Chinese herb.

Pharmacology and mechanism of action: Studies show that PHN032, as vaccine adjuvant, largely enhances mucosal immunization for IgA production as well as systematic immunization for both IgM and IgG production.

Competitive niches:
• Benefits the aging population as weak response to immunization is of concern.
• Induces both mucosal and systematic immune responses.
• The elicited mucosal immune response serves as the first line defense against foreign pathogens prior to the systematic responses.
• Oral or nasal vaccines are easier to use than injectible vaccines.
• Safer than cholera toxin subunit for similar applications.
• Can be applied to other vaccines, and can be used in children populations.

The first US patent (patent number: 6,998,262 B2) of PHN032 has been granted as of June 2005 and more relevant patents (application number: 11/093,970) have been and will continue to be filed.

Early stage (pre-clinical)

Licensing or partnering

T. S. Jiang, Ph.D. (c.c. to Hui-Chuan Huang, Assistant Researcher)

tsjiang@phytohealth.com.tw (c.c. to huichuan@phytohealth.com.tw)