VaxInnate receives $196 million BARDA contract to develop novel flu vaccines

VaxInnate Corporation today announced that it has been awarded a contract by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), worth up to $196 million to fund the development of recombinant seasonal and pandemic flu vaccines. VaxInnate is a biotechnology firm pioneering breakthrough technology for use in developing novel vaccines.

The contract initially provides funding of $118 million for a base period of 36 months, with an option to extend for 24 months. The contract is effective on February 24, 2011.

"We're pleased and gratified to receive this award and look forward to working with BARDA to develop the next generation of vaccines for the prevention of seasonal and pandemic flu," said Thomas Hofstaetter, PhD, President and CEO of VaxInnate. "The contract is an endorsement of VaxInnate's proprietary technology, which makes it possible to produce hundreds of millions of doses of safe, effective flu vaccine rapidly and at low cost. It also demonstrates the potential of our technology to meet other critical and emerging public health threats in the future."

Initial clinical trials will evaluate the components and combinations of what will ultimately be several different pandemic flu vaccines and a seasonal quadravalent flu vaccine, produced using VaxInnate's proprietary technology. The technology involves genetically fusing vaccine antigens to the bacterial protein flagellin, a potent stimulator of the innate immune system.

VaxInnate has already completed a series of Phase I/II trials using VAX 125 and VAX128, prototype vaccines for both seasonal and pandemic Type A1 flu vaccines. The most recent trial assessed the safety and immunogenicity of three different forms of the VAX128 vaccine in several hundred healthy adults aged 18-49 and more than 100 community-living adults ≥ 65 years of age in the United States. VAX128 was demonstrated to be highly immunogenic at low doses (1-2.5 µg) and well tolerated up to 20-µg doses.

Further, the trial confirmed the safety and efficacy of the vaccine forms in elderly subjects, who are less responsive to flu vaccines due to the effects of aging on the immune system. People aged 65 and older, a population segment that is growing rapidly as baby-boomers age, suffer disproportionately from seasonal flu and its complications.