AlphaVax receives second U.S. grant for smallpox vaccine research

Research Triangle Park, N.C. — AlphaVax, which is developing vaccine technology, has received a second grant from the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases to support the firm’s efforts to develop a smallpox vaccine.

AlphaVax has proprietary technology for producing vaccines based on modified alphaviruses. Alphaviruses are defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as RNA-containing viruses that are often found in mosquito-transmitted diseases.

The company will use the new grant to support studies in rodents and non-human primates. It will discuss findings made thus far at a virus conference this week in Germany.

"The work completed under the NIAID grant to date is an excellent demonstration of the potential of our alphavirus vector platform to address many different diseases as well as bioterrorism threats,” said Jonathan Smith, chief scientific officer at AlphaVax. “We have shown efficacy of this platform in numerous animal models and safety and immunogenicity in three clinical trials to date. We look forward to working with the U.S. government to advance a new smallpox vaccine that has an excellent safety profile and is capable of being rapidly manufactured using AlphaVax's proprietary manufacturing process.”