Crucell Receives NIH Support for Candidate Malaria Vaccine Development

30-Mar-2004

Leiden, The Netherlands. Dutch biotechnology company Crucell N.V. announced that the National Institute of Allergy and infectious diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), will support the development of Crucell's candidate malaria vaccine.

The agreement has an estimated value of up to USD $3.5 million and will cover process development of the candidate AdVac(TM)-based malaria vaccine including the production of clinical trial material and Investigational New Drug (IND) filing. In effect, NIAID will cover full pre-clinical development costs of Crucell's candidate malaria vaccine.

"The NIH's support of our malaria vaccine program follows the collaboration we formed with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals last year," said Jaap Goudsmit, Crucell's Chief Scientific Officer. "It is a huge step forward for Crucell's malaria vaccine program, and underlines Crucell's seriousness about getting product candidates into the clinic."

The work will be done under a subcontract agreement with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). In 2000, SAIC was awarded a contract (N01-AI-05421) from NIAID to assist in developing promising candidates for a malaria vaccine. The vaccine is based on Crucell's patented AdVac(TM) adenovirus vector technology and produced using Crucell's PER.C6(TM) technology. It consists of a proprietary adenovirus vector carrying the gene for the Circumsporozoite protein (CSP) from the malaria parasite.

https://www.bionity.com/en/news/36421/crucell-receives-nih-support-for-candidate-malaria-vaccine-development.html