Having assembled a leadership team drawn from the front ranks of vaccine development, TechImmune is preparing to move its lead Long COVID program toward the clinic. Company co-founder Gavin Herbert built out the team, and Jeffrey Ulmer, PhD, a veteran of Novartis and GSK Vaccines, was recruited as President to lead the company's development efforts.
A unanimous endorsement
TechImmune's scientific advisory board, a group of roughly nine experts in immunology, vaccinology and drug development, reviewed the program and unanimously endorsed advancing it. That endorsement rests on data generated in the laboratory of Professor Lbachir BenMohamed, PhD, at the University of California, Irvine, whose T-cell antigen platform forms the scientific foundation of the company.
"This type of target validation you usually don't get early in a pre-clinical program like this."
Jeffrey Ulmer, PhD, PresidentTwo studies running in parallel
The company is pursuing two lines of work at once. The first characterizes the specific immune deficits seen in Long COVID patients, building the human evidence base for the program. The second tests the immunotherapy in animal models to demonstrate that restoring T-cell responses can clear persistent virus.
- Human studies defining the T-cell deficits that distinguish Long COVID patients.
- Animal immunotherapy studies, with data expected by year-end 2025.
- IND-enabling development planned to begin in early 2026.
A category of one
TechImmune believes it is currently the only company developing a T-cell immunotherapy specifically aimed at the root cause of Long COVID, rather than managing symptoms. If the animal data read out as expected, the company intends to advance directly into IND-enabling studies as it prepares for first-in-human trials.