Allergy to mites:Agreement between Stallergenes and MERISTEM Therapeutics for recombinant allergens production

MERISTEM Therapeutics (Clermont-Ferrand - France) and Stallergenes (Antony - France) announce the signature of an agreement on the industrial feasibility and the production of two mites major allergens in plant.

This agreement is part of a project, conducted by Stallergenes, supported by ANVAR, which aims at replacing natural mites allergenic extracts which are currently used by recombinant major allergens.

This agreement follows a research and development project  conducted by the CNRS Research Unit N° 6037, the University of Rouen(FR), the ALTADIS Tobacco Institute (FR), Sanquin Research (NL), Stallergenes and the Centre Européen de Bioprospective also supported by ANVAR, which demonstrated the scientific feasibility of major allergens expression in plants, on a laboratory scale. IgE of allergic patients showed a better recognition of some recombinant allergens expressed in plant system than in other more classical expression systems.

Following this decisive scientific progress, Stallergenes, specialised in allergen immunotherapy, entrusts MERISTEM Therapeutics, specialised in recombinant proteins production in plants, with a feasibility study for the production of two mites recombinant allergens in tobacco plant on an industrial scale. Due to considered volumes, production is planned under greenhouse.

Recombinant major allergens are the key axis of Stallergenes' research and development and represent a major pharmaceutical step forward because of their characteristics in terms of definition, control and standardisation.

House dust mites are responsible for a large part of respiratory allergies. It is estimated that 5 to 10% of the world population should suffer from allergy to mites.