Gavin Herbert, the co-founder of Allergan and a longtime force in Orange County life sciences, has been steering TechImmune since its founding. As the company moves from early science toward the clinic, Herbert is transitioning from Chairman to Vice Chairman and has recruited one of the most accomplished figures in modern vaccine development to lead the board: James F. Young, PhD.
Young was the longtime Chairman of Novavax and a scientific leader within Operation Warp Speed. He co-founded MedImmune in 1989, where his teams developed FluMist and Synagis before the company was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2007 for $15.6 billion. He chaired Novavax for roughly 14 years, a period that included the global rollout of its protein-based COVID-19 vaccine.
"I looked at the data and thought, this is remarkable. This could be an important opportunity on a disease affecting many people, Long COVID."
James F. Young, PhD, Executive ChairmanA large and underserved patient population
Long COVID is estimated to affect roughly 400 million people worldwide and about 10 million Americans, and there are no FDA-approved therapies for the condition. Young frames the opportunity in stark public-health terms.
"The pandemic is done, but the virus is not gone," he said. "There are more hospitalizations due to COVID than flu."
Target validation that surprised the team
TechImmune's approach grew out of a striking observation in the underlying research: in studies of patients, those who died from COVID-19 were found to lack key protective T cells, while individuals who experienced only mild disease had abundant T cells. That contrast pointed directly to T-cell immunity as a therapeutic target.
"This type of target validation you usually don't get early in a pre-clinical program like this," said Jeffrey Ulmer, PhD, the company's President.
The road ahead
The company expects to raise up to $50 million across two rounds of financing as it advances its lead program. With Young as Executive Chairman, Herbert as Vice Chairman, and a deep bench of vaccine veterans, TechImmune is positioning itself as the company to beat in the race to treat the root cause of Long COVID.