Questionnaire for a Biotech

How and when did your company start, and where are you located? NovaDigm was founded in 2005 by a group of investigators at the los Angeles Biomedical research institute (lA BioMed) and the Division of infectious Diseases at Harbor-UclA Medical center. The company received its first venture capital funding from Domain Associates in 2008 and established its corporate headquarters and laboratory in Grand forks, North Dakota in 2009. How many employees do you have, and how do you find / attract them? we have 11 full-time employees and a strong network of consultants. we have found our lab-based employees in North Dakota through local advertising and networking. our other employees and consultants are drawn mainly from our established networks within the vaccine industry. What are the main focus and platform technology(ies) of your company? NovaDigm is a product-focused company based on recombinant antigens from the fungal pathogen Candida albicans that were in-licensed from lA BioMed. we are currently developing vaccines using two of these antigens, rAls3 and rHyr1. By analyzing the structure of these antigens, our scientific founders discovered structural homolo-gies between Als3 and two surface proteins on Staphylococcus aureus and between Hyr1 and a surface protein on Acinetobacter baumannii. subsequent studies in preclinical models demonstrated cross-kingdom protection (i.e. protection against both a fungal pathogen and a bacterial pathogen), the first reports of such broad protection for a single antigen. Can you provide a short overview of your product pipeline? our lead program is the NDV-3 vaccine, containing the rAls3 protein. NDV-3 has completed two Phase 1 studies in 200 healthy adults. in July 2013 we initiated a Phase 1b/2a efficacy study of NDV-3 as a therapeutic vaccine to prevent recurrences of vaginal yeast infections in women with chronic yeast infections due to Candida (recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis). Who is your competition, and what advantage(s) does your products/technology offer? The only other company with a clinical-stage Candida vaccine is Pevion, a swiss biotech company. They are also targeting recurrent vaginal yeast infections due to Candida as an initial indication. Pevion's vaccine has completed an initial Phase 1 study. However, Candida is also the third most prevalent pathogen in icUs worldwide, and causes invasive infections that have 30-40% mortality rates. The eventual use of our vaccines to prevent these deadly nosoco-mial (healthcare-associated) infections is a key mission of NovaDigm. for these indications, the cross-protection of our vaccines against other major nosocomial pathogens …