Harvard and Crucell Receive $19.2 million NIH Grant to Develop Next-Generation AdVac®-based Vaccines
Crucell N.V. announced that it has, in collaboration with Harvard Medical School, been awarded a US$ 19.2 million (EUR 15.9 million) grant from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop new adenovirus vector-based vaccines against HIV/AIDS. Crucell will receive US$ 8.1 million (EUR 6.7 million) for the further development of its AdVac® technology.
The program at Harvard and Crucell has focused for two years on the development of AdVac®, which incorporates next-generation vaccine vectors based on rare human adenoviruses. The technology is central to Crucell's malaria and tuberculosis vaccine programs. The new five-year grant, awarded under the project title of 'Novel Adenovirus Vector-Based Vaccines for HIV-1', will complement Crucell's involvement in the adenovirus vector-based HIV vaccine programs of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and Merck. The AdVac®-based IAVI program is at an advanced preclinical stage; the Merck program is currently in Phase II proof-of-concept studies in humans. It is based on Merck's in-house vector system and Crucell's PER.C6® production technology.
The rationale for the joint program's vaccines has been published: "Immunogenicity of Heterologous Prime-Boost Regimens Involving Recombinant Adenovirus Serotype 11 (Ad11) and Ad35 Vaccine Vectors in the Presence of Anti-Ad5 Immunity "; Journal of Virology 2005, 79/15, 9694-9701.
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