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news.Vical has been awarded a two-year, $2.9 million grant from the US National Institutes of Health to support the development of a DNA vaccine against naturally emerging or weaponized strains of avian influenza.
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Funding from the agency, which is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, will be released in stages contingent upon the achievement of developmental milestones. In the initial activities covered by the grant, Vical will be collaborating with St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a center of expertise in influenza research.
The goal is to design a vaccine that could be developed and manufactured quickly and safely, without handling the infectious organism, and stockpiled longer than conventional vaccines. The vaccine is expected to target both variable surface proteins and unchanging core proteins of the virus for protection against potential pandemic outbreaks characterized by highly virulent pathogens, rapid human-to-human disease transmission, and minimal prior immunity.
“We believe that our DNA vaccine technology is well suited to address the potential threats from emerging pathogens such as avian influenza virus,” said Vijay Samant, Vical’s president and CEO.