Omniose Enters Research Collaboration with AstraZeneca

Omniose, a St. Louis startup focused on developing vaccines for bacterial infections, has entered into a 3-year research agreement with AstraZeneca, the gigantic pharmaceutical firm known for developing Britain’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Omniose Targets Vaccines for Drug Resistant Superbugs

The agreement grants AstraZeneca exclusive rights to Omniose’s proprietary bioconjugate vaccine platform, according to a press release, “which allows for the development of high-quality vaccines against a range of bacterial pathogens, including multidrug-resistant ‘superbugs’ previously intractable by other methods.”

AstraZeneca Excited to Collaborate with St. Louis BioTech Startup

“As serious bacterial infections become increasingly resistant to commonly-used antibiotics, the development of alternative preventative interventions is critical,” said Mark Esser, Vice President, Early R&D Vaccines & Immune Therapies AstraZeneca, in the press release.

“As part of our ambition to provide long-lasting immunity to millions of people, we are excited to enter into this scientific collaboration with Omniose to explore the role of this novel bioconjugate platform in developing vaccines for bacterial pathogens.”

“Holy Grail for Vaccine Companies“

STL Inno’s Nathan Rubbelke reports that Christian Harding, who is now the Chief Scientific Officer at Omniose (formerly VaxNewMo, of which Harding was previously CEO & co-founder), intends to double headcount at the St. Louis BioTech startup from where it currently stands at eight full-time employees. 

“To find your strategic collaborator and actually execute a deal and align on exclusivity for three years, it’s the holy grail for vaccine companies,” Harding told Rubbelke.

Talking Points: Why this Matters to St. Louis

1. Talent Attraction & Skill Retention

As Omniose aims to double its workforce, the expansion in highly specialized employment opportunities directly benefits the local economy. 

As Mike Fabrizi has discussed at length on EQ, highly skilled job creation is a crucial driver for regional economic development, as it creates a uniquely attractive business environment and an easily protected supply chain. Put another way, embracing economic complexity creates a “moat” around St. Louis, which eventually makes it much harder and more costly for other cities to replicate elsewhere. 

I (EQ) got a chance to speak with Christian Harding on the phone and he echoed and illustrated the advantages of economic complexity. He explained that Omniose was able to hire experienced staff from a multinational BioTech company based out of San Francisco that had closed their facility in St. Louis and laid off all their staff, saying:

“As the strategic plan changed, according to this multinational C-suite over there (in San Francisco), they closed the facility here. Timing wise, you could not have planned it better from us, because Omniose is benefiting. I’ve been able to onboard amazing talent. These people are highly skilled, and know how to work in big biotech pharma environments. They are bringing a corporate America experience background, because they’ve been in a publicly traded company; a very large institution greater than 500 employees.

Most importantly, I’m not saying, “Oh, we’re this amazing company doing a good deed.” No, not at all, this is totally symbiotic. They can immediately join Omniose and add cultural value, people value, technical value and, of personal importance to me, they’ve seen the high highs and they’ve seen the low lows. 

We both are benefiting from this by having an opportunity to offer employment, and simultaneously getting these amazingly talented, nice, kind, good people to join the team. It’s just a great opportunity for both parties and mutually beneficial, because they’re bringing their experiences, which are not just their educational background and skill set, but their life experiences and their business experiences to us. 

In fact, that’s why we haven’t posted a job yet. Because we’ve been lucky enough to find this invaluable resource of skilled talent that was, unfortunately, pulled out of a job because their company decided to go a different route and close facilities in St. Louis.

We’re able to learn from them, they can learn from us and we grow together. So, we’re very excited!“

— Christian Harding, Chief Scientific Officer at Omniose

2. Competitive Advantage & Future Proofing

By championing startups like Omniose, local BioTech incubators and impact investors such as Biogenerator and Arch Grants (2017 awardee) are betting on the possibility that St. Louis could become a global economic center of gravity in battling future pandemics and other bacterial infections.

With ever-increasing air travel, human-to-animal contact, population overcrowding from urbanization and a shortage of health workers, such a future seems worth preparing for since recent speculation from the NIH asserts that “Pandemics Will be More Frequent.”

Furthermore, a focus on vaccine development diversifies economic activities in St. Louis beyond traditional sectors, which contributes to the resilience of the local economy by reducing dependency on specific industries.