PROVIDENCE, R.I., Feb. 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — EpiVax, Inc. proudly announces the appointment of Guilhem Richard as Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Richard joined EpiVax’s immunoinformatics team in 2014 and spearheaded the development of a new computational platform for developing personalized, neoantigen-based cancer vaccines: Ancer®. He subsequently oversaw translational work of this technology at EpiVax’s subsidiary company, EpiVax Therapeutics, Inc., from 2019 to 2024. Dr. Richard is now leading innovation efforts at EpiVax and is overseeing the development of new and enhanced computational tools for immunogenicity assessment. He holds a M.Eng. in Bioinformatics and Modeling from the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) of Lyon, France, and a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from Boston University.
The promotion of Dr. Richard coincides with several key advancements in EpiVax’s technology and offerings. EpiVax reports significant updates, leveraging advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques, to several of the core immunoinformatic assets included in the company’s ISPRI platform. The updates will further enhance the leading platform’s immunogenicity risk assessment features for biologic therapeutics. The new models have enabled EpiVax researchers to refine prediction of tolerated epitopes, improving both precision and recall of its JanusMatrix model by 50%. In addition, new immunogenicity models predicting the rate of anti-drug antibodies (ADA) against monoclonal therapeutics have led to a 6-fold increase in the correlation between predicted and observed values over existing approaches, while significantly reducing the rate of false negative (low predicted immunogenicity / high observed immunogenicity) by 85%. These updated tools will become available on EpiVax’s ISPRI platform, accessible on a SaaS and fee-for-service basis in coming months, enhancing accuracy of results of a key assessment step in the development process for global biotech and pharma clients and collaborators.
In addition, EpiVax has filed a new Model Master File (MMF) for its PANDA® In Silico Model to the FDA, supporting regulatory filing of Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDA) of generic peptide drugs. EpiVax’s PANDA® MMF provides detailed descriptions of its models and methodologies for assessing the immunogenicity of peptide drugs and their impurities and can now be referenced as a Drug Master File (DMF) in FDA ANDA fillings. The accessibility of EpiVax’s PANDA® MMF represents an important step in streamlining the preparation and review of ANDAs, enabling sponsors to simplify their regulatory package and FDA reviewers to access in-depth background and validation information regarding EpiVax’s immunogenicity models.
EpiVax remains committed to driving innovation with several planned improvements for the ISPRI platform upcoming, including a new version of EpiMatrix® to further enhance the toolkit’s predictive capabilities. Additionally, guided analysis features and an updated user interface for ISPRI will provide a more user-friendly experience, empowering our partners in strengthening their pipelines.
About EpiVax
EpiVax is a leader in preclinical immunogenicity assessment and sequence optimization for peptide therapeutics, biologic therapeutics, and vaccines. EpiVax partners with a global roster of companies, agencies, and academics to accelerate immunogenicity risk assessment, immune modulation, and rapid vaccine design.
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