Zentek completes first phase of Innovative Solutions Canada contract

Zentek (ZTEK) has completed the first phase of the Innovative Solutions Canada Testing Stream contract by delivering a lead candidate countermeasure for highly pathogenic avian influenza A and has now moved to the testing phase of the project. Highlights: Zentek was awarded approximately $1.1M through the Government of Canada’s Innovative Solutions Canada Testing Stream under Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada for Health Advanced And Emerging Medical Technologies. Government of Canada testing partners include ISED’s Health and Emergency Preparedness Canada and Defence Research and Development Canada, the science and technology organization of the Department of National Defence. The contract began in November 2024 to develop both a prophylactic and therapeutic for avian influenza HPAI A using a multivalent aptamer strategy that previously led to the successful development of a SARS-CoV-2 aptamer. Most activities for the lead countermeasure candidate development were performed through collaboration with the Li Lab at McMaster University. On October 31, 2024, Zentek and the Government of Canada signed an ISC Testing Stream contract to develop a prophylactic and therapeutic lead candidate countermeasure for HPAI A. The countermeasure to be produced for the contract was to utilize Zentek’s successful multi-valent aptamer strategy which was used to produce a countermeasure for SARS-CoV-2 that has shown efficacy against all known variants of SARS-CoV-2 it has been tested against. During the five months of lead candidate countermeasure development, the collaboration with McMaster University has focused on the following tasks: Selection of lead monomers with high binding affinity to the hemagglutinin protein and high specificity. Construction of multimeric forms of the lead monomers to increase overall avidity. In vitro testing to ensure the lead candidate aptamer has effective neutralization of H5N1 and other strains of influenza viruses to prevent cell infection. The tasks mentioned above resulted in a lead candidate countermeasure that met the performance metrics established in the Government of Canada testing contract. The recent in vitro neutralization experiments demonstrated that the lead candidate countermeasure matched the performance of a monoclonal antibody positive control. The next phase of testing requires Zentek to deliver sufficient materials to Dr. Matthew Miller’s team at McMaster University, to evaluate the in vivo performance against H1N1 and the current clade of H5N1 influenza in circulation, H5N1 2.3.4.4b.