Virax appoints new R&D head

Immune-based therapies developer Virax Holdings (ASX: VHL) has appointed a British scientist to head its vector research and process development.

The newly created position is intended to help the company accelerate its product development program, which is centred on its Co-X-Gene vaccine technology platform.

Chief executive officer Dr David Beames said the appointment of Dr Paul Howley reflected the company's need for specialised in-house vector development.

"Paul Howley is one of an elite world group with essential skills and commercial experience in the creation of viral vectors for human clinical trial purposes," Beames said.

"This in-house capability will enable Virax to accelerate its development program and protect and extend the range of its patents."

Howley, an internationally recognised virologist, approached Virax after more than three years with Danish biopharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic.

With expertise in design, construction and manipulation of recombinant pox viruses for use in immune-based therapies, Howley's background includes research positions with ICI Agriculture, Glaxo Group Research and the Institute of Virology in Strasbourg.

Howley will join the Kew-based company in August.

Until now, Virax has called on the expertise of the CSIRO to help devise its vectors, which are the vehicles used to deliver required treatment to specific diseased cells.

Currently the company uses fowl pox virus, which is not harmful in humans, as its vector with Co-X-Gene in trials of treatment for HIV and prostate cancer.

Virax's first clinical trial is of an HIV/AIDS therapeutic vaccine, with Phase I/IIa results due out in November.

Pre-clinical trials of a similar treatment for prostate cancer have commenced, with the company hoping to begin human clinical trials next year.

It is also examining the therapeutical potential of its technology in the treatment of other cancers, infectious diseases and autoimmune conditions.

"In order to progress the development of potential new therapies, Virax needs specialised vector development capability," Beames said.

Virax's Co-X-Gene technology - so named because it expresses two genes in human cells at the same time - involves the delivery of a gene specific to the target disease together with a cytokine gene to effect both specific antibody and T-cell responses.