Pfenex launched a multiproduct research program with PATH, a global health nonprofit organization, as part of an initiative to enhance vaccine production.

Recently, PATH received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a model for enhancing the production of recombinant protein vaccines against two diseases that pose a high burden in low-resource countries. PATH will use the high-expression system developed by Pfenex with the aim of accelerating the two vaccine programs in this pilot project.

The first is an adjuvant, the double-mutant Escherichia coli heat-labile toxin (dmLT), used by PATH's enteric vaccine initiative with several vaccine candidates under development. The second is a malaria transmission-blocking vaccine candidate, Pfs25, supported by PATH's Malaria Vaccine Initiative.

“We are both pleased and honored to partner with a globally respected organization as PATH in their mission to develop and deliver health solutions for unmet medical needs,” stated Bertrand C. Liang, CEO of Pfenex. “This project represents yet another example of how Pfenex's experience in the area of complex protein development and manufacture can provide innovative solutions for global health, with a portfolio of antigens and adjuvants that have been difficult or impossible to express in other host systems or organisms facilitating vaccine development previously not possible.”

Pfenex said a successful outcome could advance the development of dmLT and Pfs25, making them available in higher quantities and at lower costs. The project could lead to the creation of a platform to expedite the production of other recombinant protein vaccine antigens both for PATH and potentially other Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded vaccine product development partnerships, the company said.

Previous articleNew Class of “Good Fats” Protects against Diabetes
Next articleEbola Vaccine Trial Launched in Mali