Company Performance Metrics
- Frank Taffy: Co-Founder and CEO
David J Horin: Chief Financial Officer
Helocyte Inc. (“Helocyte”), a portfolio company of Fortress Biotech, is focused on the development and commercialization of novel immunotherapies for the prevention and treatment of cytomegalovirus (“CMV”). We aim to: (1) secure rights to new technologies via acquisition, licensing, co-development and/or other partnering; (2) fund research and
development of new technologies; and (3) ultimately introduce new technologies to market. We are currently progressing three immunotherapies developed in the laboratory of Donald J. Diamond Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at City of Hope of Duarte, California (“City of Hope”). In March of 2015, Helocyte consummated an exclusive worldwide license and option agreement with City of Hope, acquiring rights to the current Helocyte programs. PepVax, is an HLA-restricted single antigen [UL83 (pp65)] peptide vaccine for controlling CMV in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (“HSCT”) recipients. In July of 2015, we opened a Phase 2 study of PepVax in allogeneic HSCT recipients. Our second program, Triplex, is a universal (non-HLA-restricted) recombinant viral vector vaccine expressing three immuno-dominant proteins [UL83 (pp65), UL123 (IE1), UL122 (IE2)] linked to CMV in the post-transplant setting. In November of 2015, we opened a Phase 2 study of Triplex in allogeneic HSCT recipients. We additionally plan to study Triplex in recipients of allogeneic Solid Organ Transplantation. Our third program, Pentamer, is a universal (non-HLA-restricted) recombinant viral vector vaccine expressing five primary subunits of CMV (gH/gL/UL128/UL130/UL131A) linked to viral transmission in utero. The Pentamer program is currently undergoing nonclinical development and will ultimately be studied for prevention of congenital CMV.
