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GenVec Receives Additional Funding for Malaria Vaccine Program


Posted on 2006-04-27 08:39:00



GenVec, Inc. has been awarded a $500,000 contract to continue the company's malaria vaccine research and development work with the Naval Medical Research Center for a third year. The funds will be used to support GenVec's evaluation of alternative serotype adenovector-based malaria vaccines under the U.S. Navy's congressionally sponsored Agile Vaccine Program.

"We are pleased to continue our collaboration with the Naval Medical Research Center to develop novel vaccines to prevent malaria, a disease which remains a serious public health problem," said Bill Enright, Senior Director, Head Vaccines Business Development of GenVec. "We believe this collaboration represents an important and promising application of our adenovector gene delivery technology. During the past two years we have made good progress in developing more effective malaria vaccine candidates, one of which is expected to enter Phase I clinical testing later this year."

GenVec has been collaborating with the Naval Medical Research Center for the past two years to develop next-generation adenovector-based malaria vaccines with improved immunogenicity over current vaccines.

Malaria is a life-threatening disease, which is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. Malaria parasites initially invade liver cells and, after multiplying, release tens of thousands of new parasites, which invade red blood cells, multiply again, and then destroy these cells. Flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache and vomiting appear approximately 9 to 14 days after the infectious bite. If untreated, the infection can progress rapidly and become life threatening, destroying red blood cells, causing severe anemia and blocking capillaries that carry blood to the brain resulting in coma and death. Malaria causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and over one million deaths annually, mostly among children under the age of 5. Malaria is also a major health risk for travelers and the military.


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