InViragen Receives Funding From The Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative

Main Category: Immune System / Vaccines
Article Date: 28 Nov 2007 - 3:00 PDT

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InViragen announced that the company will receive financial support from the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative (PDVI). The PDVI grant will provide funds for manufacture of Inviragen's dengue vaccine in preparation for testing in human clinical trials.

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne illness, prevalent in tropical and subtropical countries throughout the world. Approximately 3.5 billion people live in endemic countries and about 100 million people are infected with dengue every year according to recent estimates published by the PDVI. Infection by any one of four dengue viruses can lead to a debilitating fever or, in a subset of cases, can lead to life-threatening hemorrhagic fever.

"This financial support from PDVI will accelerate the development of our dengue vaccine," said Dr. Dan Stinchcomb, CEO of Inviragen. "We decided early on to partner with one of the leading vaccine manufacturers in India, Shantha Biotechnics, Ltd., for the manufacture of our vaccine for human clinical trials. The grant from PDVI validates our strategy and will partially support our vaccine manufacturing efforts at Shantha."

Inviragen's dengue vaccine was designed by collaborators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Ft. Collins, CO to protect against all four of the dengue viruses. The vaccine has been shown to be safe and effective in preclinical animal models. Inviragen intends to begin human clinical testing of its vaccine in the second half of 2008.

"PDVI is supporting a number of potential vaccines for the prevention of dengue and Inviragen's vaccine is a key component of our portfolio," stated Dr. Harold Margolis, Director of the PDVI. "Our support of the Inviragen/Shantha collaboration helps to assure that this dengue vaccine could be manufactured cost-effectively in the developing world."

PDVI is located at the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, Korea. IVI is the world's only International Organization solely dedicated to vaccine research and development.

"PDVI conducted a thorough, independent evaluation of both Inviragen and Shantha. This high quality, international collaboration brings cutting-edge vaccine technology to the developing world where these vaccines are sorely needed," said Dr. John Clemens, Director General of IVI.

About InViragen

Over 15 million people worldwide die each year of infectious diseases. Vaccines to prevent these diseases are the most cost effective solutions to improving global health. Co-founded by Dr. Jorge Osorio and Dr. Dan Stinchcomb, InViragen is developing life-saving vaccines to protect against emerging infectious diseases worldwide. In addition to its dengue vaccine, InViragen is developing a vaccine to protect against West Nile disease, a combination vaccine to protect against plague and smallpox and an avian influenza vaccine. InViragen has offices in Fort Collins, Colorado and Madison, Wisconsin.

http://www.inviragen.com

About the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) and the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative (PDVI)

The International Vaccine Institute is an international Organization established at the initiative of the United Nations Development Programme under the Vienna Convention of 1969 as amended. The IVI operates under a treaty signed by 40 countries and the World Health Organization. It is governed by an independent Board of Trustees. The Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative is a program of the IVI and has been funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the government of the Republic of Korea. The PDVI mission is to ensure access to dengue vaccines in developing countries.

http://www.pdvi.org