Immunyx Pharma Selected to Join BLUE KNIGHT

Immunyx Pharma, a developer of immune modulating therapies for neutrophil-based diseases, announced it has been selected to join Blue Knight, a collaboration between Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (‘BARDA’) within the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (HHS).

“We are excited to be accepted by JLABS and BARDA as a Blue Knight company,” said Immunyx Pharma CEO Dr. Seth Salpeter. “By applying our targeted neutrophil nanoparticle (TENN) platform technology to modulate neutrophil toxicity in infectious diseases we aim to provide new avenues for combatting public health threats.”

Blue Knight is a collaboration dedicated to anticipating public health security threats, activating the global innovation community, and amplifying scientific and technology advancements to respond to a rapidly evolving global health environment.

Immunyx Pharma is focused on overcoming the major roadblocks in neutrophil therapeutics by using targeted nanoparticle delivery and novel payloads with the aim to modify neutrophil toxicity in disease. Currently there are no FDA approved neutrophil modulating therapies due to the challenges of neutropenia and the large number of systemic neutrophils. Immunyx’s technology aims to solve these problems by targeting drugs to diseased neutrophils and repolarizing neutrophils while not depleting them. Immunyx has demonstrated proof of concept data using in vivo models of respiratory and gastrointestinal disease without toxicity. The company is also advancing targeted neutrophil LNPs, delivering and expressing mRNA in neutrophils together with Merck KGA as part of the CanceRNA consortium.

Through Blue Knight, Immunyx will be expanding its US foot-print with laboratory space at JLABS @ NYC. In addition to the US offices & lab, the company maintains an R&D facility in Jerusalem which was launched in 2021 based on technology licensed from the Hebrew University and seed investment from VLX ventures. The platform was developed in the laboratories of Professor Zvika Granot and Professor Zvi Fridlender, world-renowned experts in neutrophil biology and repolarization. Immunyx is also supported by a strong international scientific advisory board of clinical experts in human immunological diseases and scientific leaders in the field of nanoparticle delivery.