“Our VLP (virus-like particle) technology, based on a scalable process with short production lead times, offers an attractive alternative to the existing egg-dependent and the newer cell-based methods for the manufacture of influenza vaccine and other urgently needed vaccines. These advantages address the challenge of producing large quantities of a pandemic flu vaccine within a short timeframe,” said Rahul Singhvi, president and CEO of Novavax.
The work, published in the peer-reviewed journal Vaccine, was completed in collaboration with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It involved VLP vaccines constructed from proteins (HA, NA, and M1) produced from genes cloned from avian H9N2 influenza virus by Novavax at the CDC.
The animals, vaccinated with a low dose of VLP without the addition of an adjuvant, developed antibodies after the first subcutaneous immunization. Immune responses increased after booster inoculation, and were shown to be protective when challenged with the H9N2 influenza virus
The study was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop avian flu vaccines using VLP technology. The company expects to continue working on its Avian Flu vaccine program and produce vaccine for testing in human clinical trials. Significant progress is also being made with VLP vaccines for AIDS and SARS with the support of grants from the NIH.