Sanaria has received grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health in the form of a phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant. The award for two years is $1.99m.
Subject to satisfactory progress by Sanaria, continued funding for a third year will bring the total to nearly $3m. The new funding will facilitate efforts to increase the efficiency and scale-up of manufacturing and release processes to the levels required for phase 3 clinical testing, licensure, and commercial launch of Sanaria PfSPZ, Sanaria’s attenuated whole parasite malaria sporozoite vaccine.
Sanaria PfSPZ Vaccine entered phase 1 clinical trials of safety and efficacy at the Naval Medical Research Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development in the spring of 2009.
The company said that the Sanaria PfSPZ Vaccine consists of live sporozoite-stage Plasmodium falciparum parasites weakened (attenuated) by exposure to radiation.