ExpreS2ion Biotech Holding AB's affiliate ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies ApS announced that the company has signed a Vaccine Discovery Collaboration Agreement with Evaxion Biotech A/S for the joint development of a novel cytomegalovirus (CMV) vaccine candidate. The collaboration will combine ExpreS2ion's ExpreS2 platform and resources for vaccine development and production with Evaxion's RAVEN artificial intelligence (AI) platform for vaccine candidate discovery and preclinical models. The aim of the collaboration is to, before the end of 2025, develop a novel CMV lead vaccine candidate, which ExpreS2ion has the exclusive right to license under a potential Development and Commercialization Agreement.

The research costs and IP licensing for the collaboration project will be divided 50/50 between the parties until 2025, with all costs expected to be covered by each party's existing budget. During the discovery phase of the collaboration, Evaxion will use its proprietary AI platform, RAVEN, to design a next-generation vaccine candidate that elicits both cellular and humoral/antibody responses. The antigen constructs derived from Evaxion's AI platform will be produced by ExpreS2ion in the company's ExpreS2 platform, followed by assessments in Evaxion's in vivo vaccine models.

The joint discovery project will be included in ExpreS2ion's development pipeline under the name ES2B-I002. A potential future Development and Commercialisation Agreement for the jointly discovered CMV lead vaccine candidate is expected to include an upfront payment and future milestone payments to Evaxion from ExpreS2ion not exceeding a six-digit USD amount, as well as sub-licensing royalty to Evaxion from ExpreS2ion based on mid to lower two-digit percentage range of third-party licensee income depending on the clinical development stage of the CMV asset at the time of sublicensing.