The funding for the initiative will be provided by SAIC through its Malaria Vaccine Production and Support Services contract with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the National Institutes of Health.
Selecta’s subcontract is part of a collaborative effort by NIAID and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to jointly develop novel therapeutics and vaccines for malaria.
As per the terms of the award, the targeted Synthetic Vaccine Particle (tSVP) vaccine for malaria will be developed by Selecta for testing in preclinical studies by SAIC collaborators.
Selecta president and CEO Werner Cautreels said this collaboration accelerates their progress to apply Selecta’s advanced vaccine technology to address the significant unmet medical needs in malaria and highlights the breadth of their vaccine technology to treat a range of diseases that impact human health, including infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and smoking cessation.