expect our intratumoral immunotherapy candidates for the treatment of solid tumors to face direct competition from companies such as Moderna and CureVac.
We also expect our FixVac and iNeST candidates to face competition from smaller specialized oncology companies such as Agenus, Gritstone, Moderna in collaboration with Merck & Co., Aduro Biotech, Advaxis Immunotherapies, Achilles Therapeutics, NousCom, ISA Pharmaceuticals, CureVac in collaboration with Eli Lilly, Genocea Biosciences, Vaccibody, PACT Pharma and ZIOPHARM Oncology in the antigen-based therapy space.
Cell Therapy Drug Class. We compete with a number of companies focused on adoptive cell therapies, including Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Gilead Sciences, Celgene, Allogene Therapeutics, CRISPR Therapeutics, bluebird bio, Medigene, Adaptimmune Therapeutics, Amgen, Atara Biotherapeutics, Autolus Limited, Cellectis, PACT, Mustang Bio, Iovance Biotherapeutics, TCR2 Therapeutics, Editas Medicine, Celyad, Celularity, Unum Therapeutics, Intrexon, and Bellicum Pharmaceuticals and Precision Biosciences.
Antibodies Drug Class. We compete with a number of companies with operations focused on checkpoint immunomodulators, including AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Small Molecule Immunomodulator Drug Class. We are aware of a number of other companies developing TLR agonists, including Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, Dynavax Technologies, Exicure, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Hoffmann-La Roche, Mologen and Nektar Therapeutics.
Infectious Diseases. The infectious disease space includes general competition from well-established pharmaceutical companies such as AbbVie, Bayer, Gilead, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co. and Novartis. In addition, Seqirus UK, Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline, Biomedical Corp. of Quebec and AstraZeneca produce influenza vaccines.
Specifically, a large number of vaccine manufacturers, academic institutions and other organizations currently have programs to develop COVID-19 vaccine candidates. While we are not aware of all of our competitors’ efforts, we believe that the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca plc, CanSino Biologics Inc., Sanofi/GlaxoSmithKline plc, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm)/Beijing Institute of Biological Products and Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, Moderna, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, Inc. and other companies are all in the early stages of developing vaccine candidates against COVID-19.
Rare Diseases. We compete with a number of companies focused on rare diseases, including Roche, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi Novo Nordisk and Pfizer.
Many of our competitors and potential competitors, either alone or with their collaborators, have greater scientific, research and product development capabilities as well as greater financial, marketing, sales and human resources and experience than we do. In addition, smaller or early-stage companies, including immunotherapy-focused therapeutics companies, may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. Some of our collaborators, such as Genmab, Pfizer and Sanofi, may also be competitors within the same market or other markets. Accordingly, our competitors may be more successful than us in developing and potentially commercializing technologies and achieving widespread market acceptance. In addition, our competitors may design technologies that are more efficacious, safer or more effectively marketed than ours or have fewer side effects, or may obtain regulatory approvals more quickly than we are able, which could eliminate or reduce our commercial potential. These competitors also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel and establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to, or necessary for, our programs.
We anticipate that the key competitive factors affecting our technologies will be efficacy, safety, cost and convenience, as well as our ability to build a fully-integrated biotechnology company. The availability of
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