TapImmune to Open New Laboratories and Offices at 1551 Eastlake Ave.; $TPIV
TapImmune Inc. (OTCBB: TPIV) is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of innovative therapeutics and vaccines in the areas of oncology and infectious disease. The company's lead product, the TAP vaccine performs a key step in moving characteristic markers called antigens to the surfaces of cells. Without TAP, there are no cancer markers, so the immune system fails to spot the rogue cells and the cancerous cells can grow undetected. The Company's vaccine has shown effective restoration of TAP which restores and augments the marker (antigen) presentation and subsequent recognition and killing of cancer cells by the immune system. The TAP molecule also works as an adjuvant or 'accelerant' to enhance targeted vaccines against infectious diseases. Including TAP in the studied Smallpox Vaccine showed potency was increased by 100-1000 times. The company is currently developing AdhTAP for the commencement of toxicology studies leading to the initiation of Phase I clinical trials. The global vaccine market is expected to grow from $13 billion in 2007 to $21 billion in 2010.
The company has signed a sub-lease for a “newly-renovated, state of the art laboratory and office space” at 1551 Eastlake Ave. in South Lake Union, the heart of Seattle's vibrant biotech and medical community. The scheduled move-in date was January 23, 2012.
The sublease was signed with Puget Sound Blood Center Research Institute. It includes “a service agreement enabling TapImmune's scientific research team to access a wide array of functioning core labs and shared equipment in an innovative and cooperative model for scientific research and development.”
Mark Reddish, TapImmune's Vice President of Product Development, commented,
"We are very excited to be working with the Puget Sound Blood Center's internationally-recognized group of scientific investigators since this allows a leveraging of our development dollars in a way that expands our capabilities well beyond our core staff. The labs include equipment and expertise that we would not otherwise be able to access as a start-up operation. Having access to Mass Spectrometry, Fluorescent Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) as well as a DNA sequencing lab affords our new team of scientists the opportunity to immediately begin delivery of our gene based product candidates for clinical trials."
Chairman and CEO Dr. Glynn Wilson added,
"It has been a pleasure working with the leadership team at the Research Institute, and we look forward to a dynamic research environment in this new medical/biotechnology hub. This represents an important corporate milestone in advancing the clinical development of TapImmune's immunotherapy products and supporting of our external research and development collaborations."
Chief operating officer of Puget Sound Blood Center Research Institute Jim Gore, who was responsible for the design and renovations of the new facility, commented,
"We're delighted to be welcoming TapImmune's research and development team into the facility, and the synergy it will create with our own scientific teams," Gore said. "We believe that our unique approach of creating 'scientific cooperative' by sharing of core support delivers significant benefits to researchers from both organizations in their complementary areas of investigation."
The facility, which is owned and operated by Alexandria Real Estate Equities, has "become a new Seattle hub for biomedical research, including the Puget Sound Blood Center, the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association and the Life Sciences Discovery Fund, among others. The facility was previously the headquarters of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation."
Read the full press release at Market Watch.
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