Our Approach and Platform

Aravax’s platform technology aims to deliver next generation, disease-modifying immunotherapies that are safer and more convenient than existing approaches for treating food allergy.

Retraining the Immune System

Our immunotherapies aim to retrain the immune system to see food as safe, by showing the immune system relevant parts of the food protein in the absence of danger signals.

Peptide Design for Immune Modulation

Our Unique Approach

Our immunotherapies use proprietary peptides designed to precisely retrain the immune system to tolerate specific foods whilst avoiding triggering treatment-induced acute allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Our products do not use whole foods, extracts or whole proteins (allergens).

Peptides by Design

T cells play a pivotal role in regulating allergic disease upstream of the IgE mediated processes that trigger allergic reactions. We identify the shortest amino acid sequences within allergens that are recognised by allergen-specific T cells by screening blood samples from groups of allergic patients and design peptides to mimic them. These small peptides are specifically designed and tested to avoid triggering acute allergic reactions during treatment.

Pharmaceutical Quality Immunotherapies

Our peptides are synthesised, characterised, manufactured at scale and formulated to pharmaceutical quality standards.

The Aravax Approach Has Been Designed To Deliver Benefits Over Current Therapies

We are developing targeted and precise immunotherapies to better meet the need of patients and clinicians.

Safer

Replaces complex food extracts with peptides that are precisely targeted to elicit efficacy:

Mimics the smallest possible parts of food proteins recognised by the immune system
Avoids the parts of the food protein that trigger treatment-induced acute allergic reactions including anaphylaxis
Eliminates off-target effects on other inflammatory cells such as mast cells.

More Convenient

Patient friendly, monthly intradermal administration:

Tiny dose volume for minimal discomfort (0.1 mL)
No dose escalation required
No lifestyle restrictions related to dosing
No requirement for burdensome measures to manage risks of adverse reactions to therapy.

Disease-modifying

Targets and modulates T cells which are upstream of the IgE and cytokine signalling processes that trigger allergic reactions.

Presentation of peptides to T cells in the absence of inflammatory co-signalling is designed to promote and maintain tolerance more efficiently than whole allergens.

Clinical Validation

Our approach is being validated in the clinic.

Results from preclinical studies of patient samples and Phase 1 studies with PVX108 peanut allergy treatment showed evidence of durable, clinically relevant changes in the peanut-specific immune response along with a promising safety profile.

Precision Immunotherapies

Our Therapeutic Approach: Reprogramming the Immune System from Allergy to Tolerance

Traditional thinking about the pathology of allergy has centred on the role of allergen-specific IgE in sensitising mast cells which then degranulate to release inflammatory mediators when they come into contact with allergen.

However, upstream of these acute effector mechanisms, CD4+ allergen-specific T cells play a pivotal role in regulating allergic disease and controlling allergic responses.

Within the CD4+T cell population, distinct subsets exert opposing influences; proinflammatory Th2 cells drive allergic responses, while protective regulatory T cells (Tregs) act as sentinels, detecting and suppressing unwanted immune responses to maintain immune tolerance.

The balance between Th2 and Treg cell types is pivotal as it determines allergic status and can shift dynamically in response to environmental and immunological signals.

This concept underpins Aravax’s therapeutic approach which focuses on using its next generation immunotherapies to redirect the allergen-specific T cell population back towards a healthy balance and restore tolerance to allergens.