OREANDA-NEWS. May 15, 2012. Selecta Biosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of synthetic vaccines and immunotherapies, today announced that it has received the prestigious Edison Award for 2012 with the Gold Medal for Best Pharmaceutical Product Innovation. This award recognizes Selecta’s novel platform that enables an entirely new way to develop therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines that are highly targeted for improved efficacy and safety. The Edison Awards symbolize the persistence and excellence personified by Thomas Alva Edison, inspiring America’s drive to remain in the forefront of innovation, creativity and ingenuity in the global economy.

Selecta has rapidly translated innovations in nanotechnology and immunology discovered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School to product candidates that induce antigen-specific immune stimulation and antigen-specific tolerance. Selecta is applying its proprietary Synthetic Vaccine Particle (SVP™) platform to advance a robust pipeline of vaccine candidates for the prevention and treatment of a number of serious diseases, including infectious diseases, smoking cessation, autoimmune diseases and allergies. Selecta’s SVP platform is designed to create robust antigen-specific immune responses for superior vaccine effectiveness, while achieving a strong safety profile.

“We are honored to receive this award which underscores the unique value of our technology platform and its game changing potential to make novel vaccines for important human diseases,” said Werner Cautreels, PhD, Selecta’s President and CEO. “Our proprietary Synthetic Vaccine Particle platform creates a new paradigm in vaccine development, enabling completely new therapeutic applications with the potential for improved efficacy and safety for patients.”