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Technology Overview

Our Technology

CV Herst holding the first FLOVID-20 dose developed in April 2020 for testing
CV Herst holding the first FLOVID-20 dose on April 8, 2020 manufactured for testing.

The ability to safely and selectively stimulate T-Cell immunity has been the holy grail of immunology for decades.  Until Flow Pharma’s patented bio-delivery systems were developed, all attempts at fulfilling this therapeutic dream have ended in failure and frustration.

The two keys to the groundbreaking selective T-Cell stimulation success of Flow Pharma are its ability to layer the latest advances in organic biochemical oligopeptide target identification and mimicry via artificial intelligence with it’s beautifully simple but sophisticated delivery system utilizing specially-formulated, precisely-constructed microspheres. 

The result is a revolutionary new class of immuno-therapeutics with potential application to many human diseases – all in an inexpensive, room-temperature stable powder that is easily administered by inhalation or injection. 

Flow Pharma’s biomedicines are created by inserting biological fragments inside small microspheres. The targeted cells absorb the microspheres, either making the cell inert or teaching it to produce an immunotherapeutic response against the disease the biomedicine is treating.

Flow Pharma has spent 10 years developing our FlowVax platform. We believe it is ideally suited for treating patients. Our proprietary manufacturing process makes FlowVax microspheres the same size as white blood cells, allowing each white blood cell to process only one neoantigen at a time optimizing the critical antigen presentation process.

Our microspheres are precision manufactured to exact size specifications for target cell absorption.

By putting only one type of peptide antigen in each microsphere, only that peptide will be taken up by an antigen presenting cell because two spheres cannot fit into a cell at the same time. We call this approach Size Exclusion Antigen Presentation Control, or SEAPAC for short.  The SEAPAC approach is covered by issued patents in Australia, Canada, the United States and the European Union.

What goes Inside Our Biomedicines

Flow Pharma incorporates two immune stimulating chemicals into all our microsphere formulas. These stimulators (MPLA and CpG) have been used in several US FDA approved medicines for years. The PLGA polymer that is used in the microsphere manufacturing is the same material that has been safely used on hundreds of millions of patients over many decades.  It is the same organic material found in absorbable stitches and is also found in several FDA approved medicines.

All three organic components of FLOVID-20 and the Flow Pharma immuno-therapeutic  platform (PLGA, MPLA and CpG)  are in currently FDA approved medicines.



Patents


Getting US patent applications to issue has become progressively more difficult over time. A graph of percent of patent applications granted per year from 1963 through 2015 shows a peak rate of 83% in 1967 and a low of 33% in 2007 with an overall downward trend for the last 50 years. 

The situation in biotechnology has become even more challenging with recent Supreme Court decisions making it more difficult to patent protein or DNA sequences for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes.

graph of percent of patent applications granted

Flow Pharma‘s strategy, developed with life sciences patent attorney Karl Bozicevic, has been to focus on protecting the novel aspects of the FlowVax platform independent of a specific therapeutic area.

Karl bozicevicWe currently have patents issued in Australia, Canada, the United States and the European Union protecting the FlowVax platform. We have additional patents pending covering the FlowVax platform and various other aspects of our technology. We are grateful to Karl and his firm, Bozicevic, Field and Francis, for helping us obtain broad patent protection covering all FlowVax vaccines and therapeutics in our pipeline. 

Natural variants in SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein pinpoint structural and functional hotspots with implications for prophylaxis and therapeutic strategies

Research Publications

In December 2019, a novel coronavirus, termed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the cause of pneumonia with severe respiratory distress and outbreaks in Wuhan, China

Paired SARS-CoV-2 spike protein mutations observed during ongoing SARS-CoV-2 viral transfer from humans to minks and Back to humans

Research Publications

A mutation analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomes collected around the world sorted by sequence, date, geographic location, and species has revealed a large number of variants from the initial reference sequence in Wuhan.

A synthetic peptide CTL vaccine targeting nucleocapsid confers protection from SARS-CoV-2 challenge in rhesus macaques

Research Publications

Our FLOVID-20 team released a new research preprint showing that Rhesus Monkeys vaccinated with FLOVID-20 were free of pneumonia-like infiltrates characteristic of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection and presented with lower viral loads relative to controls.

An effective CTL peptide vaccine for Ebola Zaire Based on Survivors’ CD8+ targeting of a particular nucleocapsid protein epitope with potential implications for COVID-19 vaccine design

Research Publications

Development of safe and effective vaccines for some viruses such as HIV and EBOV has been challenging 19.

Anti-IL-6 Versus Anti-IL-6R Blocking Antibodies to Treat Acute Ebola Infection in BALB/c Mice: Potential Implications for Treating Cytokine Release Syndrome

Research Publications

Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) is known to be a factor in morbidity and mortality associated with acute viral infections including those caused by filoviruses and coronaviruses.

An Approach for a Synthetic CTL Vaccine Design Against Zika Flavivirus Using Class I and Class II Epitopes Identified by Computer Modeling

Research Publications

The threat posed by severe congenital abnormalities related to Zika virus (ZKV) infection during pregnancy has turned development of a ZKV vaccine into an emergency.

Eliciting Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte Responses From Synthetic Vectors Containing One or Two Epitopes in a C57BL/6 Mouse Model Using Peptide-containing Biodegradable Microspheres and Adjuvants

Research Publications

To date, an effective vaccine for HIV has yet to be realized