Vaxart, Inc., a San Francisco biotechnology company developing oral-delivery vaccines, has been awarded a $2.8 million phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (National Institutes of Health) to support development of its first product, an orally-delivered vaccine for H5N1 Avian influenza.
"We thank the NIH for funding the further safety and efficacy tests, which, along with our previous successful animal studies, will pave the way towards clinical trials," said Principal Investigator Sean Tucker, Ph.D. The grant runs for a period of three years.
Vaxart has developed a proprietary approach to vaccine creation that, the company believes, will enable it to produce a portfolio of oral-delivery vaccines easily and quickly.
Central to Vaxart's approach is its unique adjuvant, the vaccine component that enhances immune responses. Vaxart uses an adjuvant that works through a "toll-like receptor" (TLR). TLR agents have been widely applied in vaccines and are well accepted as effective immune stimulators. Vaxart's approach employs TLR3 - the only TLR known to be fully active in the gastrointestinal tract - to stimulate a potent immune response when the vaccine is given in a pill instead of being injected.