RxKinetix Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company that uses its proprietary drug delivery technologies to develop new medicinal products, today announced it is one of the 43 recipients of a grant offer from the prestigious Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, a major international effort to achieve scientific breakthroughs against diseases that kill millions of people each year in the world's poorest countries. The grant will be used to develop thermostable vaccines with improved stability at non-refrigerated temperatures.
The initiative is supported by a $450 million commitment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as $27.1 million from the Wellcome Trust and $4.5 million from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR). A total of 14 Grand Challenges were identified based on suggestions from more than 1000 scientists from around the world. The 14 Challenges were published in Science in October 2003. Of the 1500 project ideas received, 43 were selected. RxKinetix' grant was based on the Grand Challenge #2 entitled "Prepare vaccines that do not require refrigeration".