EpiVax wins $600K SBIR grant

EPIVAX INC. has received a $600,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health through the Small Business Innovation Research program to improve a vaccine for the H7N9 avian influenza virus, according to CEO Dr. Anne S. De Groot.  / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
EPIVAX INC. has received a $600,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health through the Small Business Innovation Research program to improve a vaccine for the H7N9 avian influenza virus, according to CEO Dr. Anne S. De Groot. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

PROVIDENCE – EpiVax Inc. has received a $600,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health through the Small Business Innovation Research program to improve a vaccine for the H7N9 avian influenza virus.
Vaccine development will be directed by Dr. Anne S. De Groot, EpiVax CEO, and Lenny Moise, EpiVax director of vaccine research, in collaboration with Ted Ross, professor, department of infectious diseases, and director, Center for Vaccines and Immunology, University of Georgia.
De Groot said this would be the first-ever ‘immune-engineered’ vaccine in humans.
“We are fortunate to have Dr. Annie De Groot and her team conducting innovative biotech research here in Rhode Island,” U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said in a statement. “This federal funding is a boost for EpiVax’s work to engineer new vaccines and an investment in Providence’s life sciences industry.”
According to a press release from EpiVax, a private biotechnology company, H7N9 vaccines developed using conventional methods have significantly underperformed in the clinic.
Known as the “stealth virus,” H7N9 influenza has the ability to evade human immune response, both in natural infection and in vaccine formulations, EpiVax said.
EpiVax aims to re-engineer H7N9 viral proteins so that they are more easily detected by the immune system, resulting in a more potent vaccine product.

H7N9 influenza, which emerged in China in 2013, has one of the highest mortality rates among all avian influenza viruses for humans at 30 percent, EpiVax said.
EpiVax said that sustained human-to-human spread of this virus has yet to occur, but the high lethality of this virus is of great concern, especially should it develop pandemic potential.
The first version of the optimized influenza vaccine designed by EpiVax will soon enter a Phase I trial in Australia, in collaboration with Vaxine of Australia and Protein Sciences Corp. of Conn.

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