Stabilitech awarded US contract to develop stable biodefence vaccines
This article was originally published in Scrip
Stabilitech, a privately held UK company developing technology to stabilise vaccines and other biological products against heat and freeze damage, has signed a contract with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the US Department of Defense.
The contract is to fund a programme of work to stabilise two biodefence vaccines using Stabilitech's vaccine stabilisation technology. The funding could be worth up to $4 million over three years.
The goal of the DTRA is to find technologies that will allow the stockpiling of biodefence vaccines by protecting them against both heat and freeze damage, in addition to enabling ambient temperature storage.
Stabilitech will work on an adenovirus-vectored vaccine and an adjuvanted vaccine, both in development against an undisclosed key bacterial pathogen target.
"These are two completely different vaccine types," Dr Barbara Domayne-Hayman, chief executive of Stabilitech, told Scrip. "Once we demonstrate that we can stabilise these two vaccines, the data will be important from a military point of view but will also showcase the broad applicability of our technology."
This broad applicability could be further highlighted through the recent award of a £120,000 grant by the UK's Technology Strategy Board to fund a one-year feasibility study on stabilising a range of antibodies and antibody conjugates for diagnosis of infectious disease.
Stabilitech is currently conducting seven feasibility studies which aim to stabilise vaccines supplied by potential partners. It hopes to sign "one or two licensing deals in the next year" from these seven feasibility studies, said Dr Domayne-Hayman.
What separates Stabilitech from other companies working to stabilise vaccines is its "fantastic data on stabilising live virus vaccines", she added. In addition, and important from a commercial point of view, "we use standard manufacturing equipment to stabilise our vaccines", she said.
"Nature has already solved the problem of stabilisation," concluded Dr Domayne-Hayman. "Seeds can be induced to germinate after many years. We are mimicking this process using chemical excipients."
Stabilitech raised £3.3 million in a private financing round last year (scripintelligence.com, 16 March 2009).