International Partnership to Promote Enhanced Vaccine Development

A new international partnership is aimed at enhanced vaccine development especially for pandemic diseases such as malaria and AIDS.

The private Canadian biotechnology firm ImmunoVaccine Technologies (IVT) Inc. (Halifax, Canada) has teamed up with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) section of the [U.S.] National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA). IVT will be using its patented DepoVax vaccine enhancement system to produce vaccines based on disease antigens prepared at NIAID.

DepoVax vaccines are described as being readily amenable to commercialization. They can be manufactured in large batches, and are well suited for large-scale distribution and long-term storage. DepoVax vaccines are packaged and stored in a dry form, ensuring the stability of antigens, which can otherwise be unstable in aqueous formulations. These vaccines are also easy to administer by health care practitioners, an important consideration for immunization programs targeting infectious diseases in a large population.

Protein antigens from the AIDS virus and from the malaria parasite will be the first targets for vaccine development in the new program. The ultimate objective is to produce immunostimulatory agents that will be able to induce antibody and T cell responses, and be used in combination with other vaccines. The goal of this preclinical research collaboration is to establish whether a novel vaccine formulation, in which a specified protein is formulated in DepoVax, will induce stronger T cell responses compared to other protein-based formulations.

"NIAID is a world leader in the study of infectious and immune-mediated disease, and we look forward to seeing how our enhanced DepoVax delivery system augments this research," said Dr. Marc Mansour, vice president of research and development at IVT.

Related Links:
ImmunoVaccine Technologies (IVT) Inc.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases