The grant will support additional studies in rodents and non-human primates to further characterize the high-level protection observed previously in these species.
Work completed during the first grant period demonstrated that AlphaVax’s smallpox vaccine, which expresses four, highly conserved poxvirus proteins, could provide humoral responses comparable to those obtained with a licensed vaccine. Furthermore, the AlphaVax vaccine protected mice against vaccinia virus challenge and non-human primates against a lethal challenge with monkeypox virus.
Jonathan Smith, chief scientific officer of AlphaVax, said: “We look forward to working with the US government to advance a new smallpox vaccine that has an excellent safety profile and is capable of being rapidly manufactured using AlphaVax’s proprietary manufacturing process.”