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ASX-listed biotech Phylogica has continued its march towards commercialisation of its potentially game-changing biological “peptide” vaccine, with the Perth company set to release results from in-vitro testing by mid-2019. Phylogica says its vaccine is able to provoke an amplified immune response against diseased tissue including viruses and cancer. The vaccine is based on technology that allows drugs to fully penetrate cell walls in order to deliver a drug payload.

Phylogica's biological “peptide” vaccine has performed the best in coaxing an immune response against HSV during animal testing, with 75% of the mice treated with its peptides mated to a common HSV antigen showing no detectable signs of the virus. The company will now pit its peptide vaccine against Swiss company Amal Therapeutics' zebra CPP with results expected in the first quarter of 2019.

Biotech company Phylogica has successfully used its first generation “peptides” to deliver a protein used for gene editing into the nucleus of a cell line that is normally difficult for genetic material to penetrate. The company will now determine the best conditions for peptide assisted delivery of the CRISPR/Cas9 protein before assessing its relative effectiveness and safety compared to other delivery methods.

ASX listed biotech Phylogica will start animal testing of its cell penetrating Peptide's ability to deliver proof of concept enzyme Cre drugs across cell walls into a diseased cell this month. The company has also started large scale screening of its drug library to find more peptides that can target the insides of specific cells and deliver drug cargoes with different properties.

Phylogica has continued its march towards commercialisation of its game-changing drug delivery platform, after the Perth company boosted its disease-fighting genome library in the March quarter. Phylogica said it has improved both the complexity and biodiversity of its collection of genomes as it progresses its journey towards animal-based clinical trials of the unique intracellular drug delivery technology.