Dr. Lyle Oberg joins the Board of Directors of Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics
December 16, 2020
Today, Eyam announced the appointment of Dr. Lyle Oberg to the Board of Directors of Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics.
“Eyam is excited to welcome Dr. Oberg to the Board of Directors. Dr. Oberg brings his extensive knowledge and background of health care and public policy which will be a tremendous asset for Eyam as we quickly move into testing our COVID-19 vaccine candidates,” stated Ryan M. Thomas, CEO of Eyam.
Dr. Lyle Oberg: A physician by profession, Dr. Oberg possesses extensive senior leadership, finance and corporate governance experience. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in 1993. He was first appointed to the Alberta Cabinet in 1997. He launched a western Canadian initiative to address Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and implemented an interprovincial strategy to share resources and develop new and better approaches for addressing FAS.
In May 1999, Dr. Oberg was appointed Minister of Learning. He began the second language initiative in Alberta schools to give students an edge in the world marketplace and initiated the development of the daily physical activity program to improve the health of Alberta students. In 2006, Dr. Oberg was named Minister of Finance. He left the public sector in 2008 with one of the largest surpluses in Alberta history.
Dr. Oberg later opened and became CEO of C2DNA, the first private DNA testing facility in Canada. Subsequently, Dr. Oberg joined the Flowr Corporation as CEO. Additionally, Dr. Oberg was a member of the Ernst and Young Expert Panel reviewing Alberta Health Services and their $21.9 billion annual budget and was recently appointed by Order in Council to the Physician Compensation Advisory Committee. Dr. Oberg is a director of Yorkville Asset Management which was founded in 2010 and has approximately $3 billion under management. He also currently sits on the board of CareRx and Flowr Corporation.
“Dr. Oberg’s perspective as a physician and his many years serving in Canadian public sector will be a tremendous asset as we advance our vaccine research and cooperate with governments to bring our vaccines to market,” Thomas said.
Eyam recently announced the signing of an exclusive licensing agreement with the University of British Columbia to test and commercialize vaccine candidates with the following characteristics:
- Vaccine Platform: Eyam is advancing a next generation self-amplifying mRNA (SAM) vaccine platform, which requires very low doses (mgs) as tens of thousands of copies are made by transfected cells, which aims to boost the immune response to produce both B and T lymphocyte responses for long-lasting immunity
- Vaccine Candidates: In addition to the spike (S) protein, Eyam’s license with the University of British Columbia (UBC) allows for the inclusion of additional targets that may enhance vaccine immunogenicity.
- Safety: Nucleic acid-based vaccine manufacturing is safe and time-saving and bypasses the need to grow highly pathogenic organisms at a large scale, resulting in a lower risk of contamination with live infectious reagents and release of dangerous pathogens. SAM vaccines are also more potent at lower doses, and especially the lipid encapsulated SAM vaccines Eyam plans to test.
- Speed: The use of nucleic acid-based vaccines will allow for vaccines to be obtained in a short timeframe.
- Manufacturing: The manufacturing process makes Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) grade SAM a promising vaccine approach for filling the gap between emerging infectious disease and the desperate need for effective COVID-19 vaccines. The production procedure to generate mRNA vaccines is cell-free, simple and rapid if compared to production of whole microbes, or live attenuated or subunit vaccines. Quality control is achieved instantaneously and manufactured at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional vaccines.
- Distribution: Acceptable shelf-life with an anticipated greater stability at higher temperatures, making distribution easier especially for hard to reach regions and developing countries.
About Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics: Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics is a private, Canadian based company focused on the research and development of vaccines that are safe, efficacious and low dose. Eyam, was named to honour the village in Derbyshire that, in 1665-1666, chose to stay and brave near certain death rather than travelling and risk transmitting the plague to their neighbouring towns. In the end, 75% of Eyam’s residents did indeed die, but their surrounding neighbours were saved due to Eyam’s heroic and selfless quarantine. For further information see: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2016.0618
For further information:
Website: eyamhealth.com
Email: [email protected]
