Neovacs and Stellar Biotechnologies announce launch of Neostell

PARIS, BOSTON & PORT HUENEME, Calif.—July 19 saw Neovacs and Stellar Biotechnologies Inc. announce the start of their joint venture company, Neostell SAS, with the holding of its first general assembly. At the meeting, the bylaws for Neostell were approved and the administrative board and management team were appointed.

The following executives were appointed to the Administrative Board: Bernard Fanget, (vice president of pharmaceutical development for Neovacs), Frank Oakes (CEO of Stellar Biotechnologies) and Miguel Sieler (CEO of Neovacs).

In addition, the management team will include Bernard Fanget as chairman of the board of directors and president and Olivier Dhellin as CEO. Both also will remain in their current positions at Neovacs.

Fanget and Dhellin's experiences in the pharmaceutical industry are “essential assets to oversee and ensure the efficient launch of the joint venture production company,” according to the partner companies. Their first mission at Neostell will consist of identifying and reserve trough an option agreement a site for the manufacturing facility. However, major investment in the joint venture will not occur until after the results of the Neovacs ongoing Phase 2b trial with IFNα € Kinoid in the treatment of lupus are known.

Neostell, with initial capital of €400,000, will be based in the Paris area and set up to manufacture all kinoids developed by Neovacs, starting with IFNα-Kinoid, the company's most advanced product candidate. Neostell also plans to manufacture and sell other KLH-based immunotherapy products for third-party customers worldwide.

Fanget said: "The Neostell corporation will first focus on the production scale-up of Neovacs' IFNα-Kinoid immunotherapy in anticipation of a Korean market launch, as well as the planned Phase 3 trial for the treatment of lupus and the Phase 2a study in dermatomyositis. My objectives as president are to make Neostell operational, to effectively access the conjugated vaccines development market and to ultimately make Neostell a profitable business."

"This joint venture demonstrates Stellar's commitment to ensuring that immunotherapy developers like Neovacs have both ample capacity of high-quality KLH as well as the infrastructure and expertise to manufacture their KLH-based immunotherapies as they advance to market," said Oakes. "With the Neostell corporation in place and its leadership appointed, we look forward to putting operational teams together to map out the next steps for this growth initiative."