Novavax receives $1 million in government funding for HIV/AIDS vaccine research

By Elaine Rigoli

Tampa, Fla., March 16 - Novavax, Inc. said it received a commitment from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a component of the National Institutes of Health, for an additional $1 million to fund the third year of a four-and-a-half year research program.

Novavax is developing a novel HIV/AIDS virus-like particle vaccine through an National Institutes of Health-sponsored program with scientists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Emory University and Harvard Medical School, according to a company news release.

"We believe the only realistic solution to the global HIV/AIDS pandemic is an effective vaccine," Gale Smith, vice president of vaccine development, said in the release.

"Our research is based on our insect cell technology for the production of recombinant virus particles that mimic HIV-1, but without the risk of infection."

In the first two years of the program, Novavax developed a process to manufacture HIV-1 virus-like particles from consensus sequences of the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein, the principle target for virus neutralization, the company said.

These synthetic genes were shown to be incorporated into particles that are structurally similar to HIV-1. Scientists at the three universities discovered that the HIV/AIDS virus-like particle vaccines induced a range of immune responses and antibodies in small animals and non-human primates that neutralized both laboratory strains and acute, contemporary HIV-1 isolates.

The objectives for the team during 2006 are to maximize efficiency of incorporation of the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein into the particles, according to the release.

Novavax said it then plans to begin preparations for human clinical trials of an improved HIV/AIDS virus-like particle vaccine.

Malvern, Pa.-based Novavax is focused on creating differentiated, value-added pharmaceutical and vaccine products and technologies.

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