Esperovax and Ginkgo Bioworks Announce Partnership to Develop Circular RNA-based Therapeutics

Initial focus of partnership will aim to develop cancer therapeutics

PLYMOUTH, Mich. and BOSTON, Jan. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Esperovax, an innovative developer of oral mRNA biologics, and Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), which is building the leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity, today announced a partnership to develop circular RNAs (circRNAs) for a variety of therapeutic applications. Initially, Ginkgo and Esperovax will work to develop circRNAs harboring payloads to specifically target colorectal cancer by inducing cell death only in cancerous cells.

CircRNAs represent an emerging, powerful mechanism for delivering therapeutics and vaccines due to their protein-coding potential and improved stability in comparison to their linear mRNA counterparts. This partnership aims to further exploit circRNAs by developing a novel mechanism to facilitate RNA circularization specifically in colorectal cancer cells. This would result in extended expression of the toxic payload solely in cancer cells, reducing toxicity and resulting side effects from the death of normal cells. By combining omics datasets, computational approaches, and high-throughput screening capabilities, Ginkgo will design, build and screen large numbers of RNA designs that leverage and optimize Esperovax's novel mechanism of cell-type specific circularization. Through its growing portfolio of programs in cell and gene therapy and RNA therapeutics, and recent acquisition of Circularis, Ginkgo is uniquely positioned to enable new solutions in these areas with circRNA.

"One of the most exciting things about being at Ginkgo is the opportunity to work together with startups like Esperovax in the early stages of development and collaborate on such incredible innovations as circular RNA technology," said Narendra Maheshri, Head of Mammalian Foundry at Ginkgo Bioworks. "Building off of Esperovax's novel mechanism for circularization, we're thrilled to use our platform to further develop and optimize it to enable advancements in the therapeutics space – a core area of our work."

"Given therapeutic developments in recent years, the idea of inducing a suicide gene therapy system in a tissue-specific manner has gained traction," said Randy Wayne Schekman, a Nobel Prize recipient in Physiology or Medicine and Advisor at Esperovax. "As we aim to build off that traction with the ultimate goal of improving cancer patient outcomes, Ginkgo's momentum and achievements in the therapeutics space made the company an essential and trusted team to partner with, giving us the confidence that we can eventually make this goal a reality." 

Esperovax was founded in 2018 to advance the development of its Egress RD™ oral vaccine platform, a transformative technology for delivering vaccines to the abundant population of immune cells in the gastrointestinal tract via a small oral capsule. The company's proprietary platform is designed to enable a broad suite of oral vaccines that will be safe, elicit robust immunity, remain stable at room temperature, and can be produced at a markedly lower cost than traditional vaccines. Esperovax's therapeutic delivery platforms currently utilize two proprietary oral delivery vehicles, virus like particles (VLPs) and graphene nanoparticles (GNPs). These technologies are being used to deliver its proprietary circular RNA (HercRNA TM ), a novel tool for targeting individual cells within a tissue. These advanced RNA therapeutic tools will be applied to oncology and other debilitating diseases that benefit from the cellular targeting of critical therapeutic payloads. Esperovax has company laboratories located in Plymouth, Michigan and San Francisco, California. For more information, visit Esperovax.com.

Ginkgo Bioworks is the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, providing flexible, end-to-end services that solve challenges for organizations across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to pharmaceuticals to industrial and specialty chemicals. Ginkgo's biosecurity and public health unit, Concentric by Ginkgo, is building global infrastructure for biosecurity to empower governments, communities, and public health leaders to prevent, detect and respond to a wide variety of biological threats. For more information, visit ginkgobioworks.com and concentricbyginkgo.com, read our blog, or follow us on social media channels such as Twitter (@Ginkgo and @ConcentricByGBW), Instagram (@GinkgoBioworks and @ConcentricByGinkgo), or LinkedIn.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding the potential success of the partnership and Ginkgo's cell programming platform. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believe," "can," "project," "potential," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to: (i) volatility in the price of Ginkgo's securities due to a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which Ginkgo operates and plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors, and changes in laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo's business, (ii) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and to identify and realize additional business opportunities, (iii) the risk of downturns in demand for products using synthetic biology, (iv) the unpredictability of the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and the demand for COVID-19 testing and the commercial viability of our COVID-19 testing business, (v) changes to the biosecurity industry, including due to advancements in technology, emerging competition and evolution in industry demands, standards and regulations, and (vi) our ability to realize the expected benefits of merger and acquisition transactions. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of Ginkgo's quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on November 14, 2022 and other documents filed by Ginkgo from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Ginkgo assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Ginkgo does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.

ESPEROVAX MEDIA CONTACT:
info@esperovax.com

GINKGO BIOWORKS INVESTOR CONTACT:
investors@ginkgobioworks.com

GINKGO BIOWORKS MEDIA CONTACT:
press@ginkgobioworks.com

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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks