GenVec Receives Grant For Malaria Vaccine Program

Main Category: Tropical Diseases
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines
Article Date: 07 Apr 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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GenVec, Inc. (Nasdaq:GNVC) announced that it has received a Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support the company's malaria vaccine program. This grant, valued at approximately $600,000 over two years, will be used to develop enhancements to the company's vectors for vaccine applications against malaria.

GenVec is applying its adenovector technology to the development of malaria vaccine candidates in collaboration with the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) and PATH's Malaria Vaccine Initiative. The NMRC is currently conducting a Phase I/II clinical study to assess the safety and immunogenicity of a vaccine candidate developed under this program.

"In addition to advancing our malaria vaccine program, work under this grant may provide improvements to our technology that could be applied to other adenovector-based vaccines and therapeutics," said Dr. Rick King, GenVec's Senior Vice President of Research.

About GenVec

GenVec, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutic drugs and vaccines. GenVec's lead product, TNFerade™, is currently in a pivotal clinical study (PACT) in locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Additional clinical trials are in progress in rectal cancer, head and neck cancer and melanoma. GenVec also uses its proprietary adenovector technology to develop vaccines for infectious diseases including HIV, malaria, foot-and-mouth disease, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and influenza. Additional information about GenVec is available at http://www.genvec.com and in the company's various filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Statements herein relating to future financial or business performance, conditions or strategies and other financial and business matters, including expectations regarding future revenues and operating expenses, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. GenVec cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which change over time. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements or historical experience include risks and uncertainties, including the failure by GenVec to secure and maintain relationships with collaborators; risks relating to the early stage of GenVec's product candidates under development; uncertainties relating to clinical trials; risks relating to the commercialization, if any, of GenVec's proposed product candidates; dependence on the efforts of third parties; dependence on intellectual property; and risks that we may lack the financial resources and access to capital to fund our operations. Further information on the factors and risks that could affect GenVec's business, financial conditions and results of operations, are contained in GenVec's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which are available at http://www.sec.gov. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and GenVec assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements.

GenVec