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U.S. Congressman Rush Holt Visits VaxInnate to Announce Govt. Funding for Collaborative Malaria Vaccine Development
Defense Appropriations Act awards $1million to VaxInnate for vaccine research
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Cranbury, NJ, November 30, 2006 – U.S. Congressman Rush Holt, representing the 12th District of New Jersey, visits VaxInnate Corporation’s NJ headquarters today to announce that the company has been awarded $1 million in 2007 federal funds to support collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense on malaria vaccine research. The appropriation is part of the Defense Appropriations Act of 2007.
VaxInnate is developing novel, proprietary vaccines for infectious diseases based on its Toll-like receptor (TLR) technology platform, which has the potential to substantially improve vaccine immunogenicity and efficacy. The appropriation will be used to support additional pre-clinical research on a malaria vaccine based on the company’s TLR platform, as applied to known malarial antigens.
"I am pleased to see the innovative research and development of improved vaccine technologies that is occurring right here in Central New Jersey," said Rep. Holt. "The current egg-based method of vaccine development and production is outdated and unreliable. The groundbreaking R&D occurring in Cranbury holds real promise in improving the health of all Americans."
“This represents another significant milestone for VaxInnate, and we thank Congressman Holt for his tireless efforts to represent the interests of the life sciences sector here in his District,” said Alan Shaw, President and CEO of VaxInnate. “The funding will enable us to collaborate with DoD in demonstrating how our technology platform can dramatically change the way we approach malaria vaccine development – with the potential to not only improve potency but also reduce costs and greatly expand the scale of production to better protect the military, and reach vast underserved populations.”
Almost half of the world’s population lives in areas where they are exposed to risk of malaria, and increasing numbers of visitors to endemic areas are also at risk. According to a recent report on the status of DoD’s malaria program issued by the Institute of Medicine (Battling Malaria), malaria has persisted as a formidable problem for the U.S. military throughout its history. The report also recommended that DoD should “markedly enhance its research and development efforts to produce malaria vaccines suitable for DoD needs.”
VaxInnate’s TLR technology platform works by combining proteins of vaccine antigen and bacterial flagellin, a component of the long hair-like tails that help bacteria swim and an example of a molecular pattern recognized by TLRs. These combined vaccines are extremely immunogenic because they trigger an innate immune response through the flagellin, which in turn stimulates a vigorous adaptive immune response to the antigen. The method produces robust immune responses in animal models to malaria, human and avian influenza, Dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, and other diseases. In addition, because flagellin is a stable bacterial protein, these products are also simple to make using recombinant DNA techniques.
About VaxInnate
VaxInnate is a privately-held biotechnology company focused on developing novel, proprietary vaccines for both pandemic and seasonal influenza. The company’s Toll-like receptor (TLR) technology platform allows for genetic engineering of the vaccines using recombinant DNA techniques. This technology physically links TLR agonists to vaccine antigens, which allows the conjugated vaccine to trigger an adaptive immune response. VaxInnate is using its TLR platform technology to enhance the immunogenicity of a series of antigens which will be combined into a number of different influenza products. The technology platform is also being investigated for development of vaccines for other diseases. For more information on VaxInnate, please visit http://www.vaxinnate.com.
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