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Novavax and Collaborators Significantly Improve VLP Vaccine for HIV/AIDS
Plans Under Way to Advance New Vaccine Into Clinical Testing

18 Jan 2007 - Novavax Inc. said that it has significantly enhanced both the quality and purity of its virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine for HIV/AIDS. Pre-clinical studies are under way using the improved HIV-1 vaccine, and planning has begun to advance the new vaccine to human clinical trials. Novavax is working in collaboration with scientists from the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Emory University and Harvard Medical School under funding from a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
 
"This advance demonstrates the flexibility and broad applicability of our VLP platform technology and the skill of our development team in engineering customized vaccines," said Novavax President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Rahul Singhvi. "After demonstrating immunogenicity in pre-clinical studies with our VLP vaccines for influenza, we are eager to develop VLP vaccines against other infectious diseases."
 
Early versions of Novavax's HIV vaccine were successful in triggering immune responses in pre-clinical studies. However, Novavax scientists and its collaborators recently discovered a way to optimize the expression of the HIV- 1 envelope, which is a principle target for immunity in humans, according to the company.