Harvard Medical School receives grant to develop cholera vaccine

As a subcontractor under Harvard Medical School’s award, Avant Immunotherapeutics will receive approximately $374,000 of this funding over a twelve-month period.

The project will use Avant’s VitriLife technology to develop a new formulation of the company’s CholeraGarde vaccine. At present CholeraGarde must be stored at -20 degrees C, but it is hoped researchers will develop a formulation of the vaccine that will circumvent the need for cold storage.

The funded project will consist of optimizing manufacturing yields in the fermentation and vitrification processes, and evaluating and comparing several VitriLife process methods, with traditional formulations of CholeraGarde. It will also include a comparison to previously studied formulations of the vaccine for stability, colonization and potency in animal immunogenicity studies.

“I am particularly pleased to see this project moving forward,” stated Dr Mekalanos, inventor of the vaccine. “Thermostability of Avant’s CholeraGarde is an important milestone to the development of an effective cholera vaccine for bio-defense and global health purposes, settings where its use would be of the greatest urgency.”