The vaccine candidates MTBVAC, developed by the University of Zaragoza and produced by BIOFABRI, and HBHA, developed by Institute Pasteur Lille and produced in collaboration with AERAS, have been awarded with financial support for further development. BIOFABRI will receive $ 430,000 to support a PhaseI clinical trial carried out by Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne. Institut Pasteur Lille, will receive $ 350,000 for HBHA to fund GMP production of HBHA and studies to select an adjuvant.
Last June TBVI opened a call for proposals for ‘Early clinical development of new, promising TB vaccine candidates’. The call focussed on cGMP manufacturing, toxicity and safety evaluation, and/or support for carrying out (first in human) phase I clinical trials.
The mycobacterial Heparin Binding Hemagglutinin (HBHA) is a novel protein antigen which is at a late stage of preclinical development. With the new funds, the developers want to produce a subunit TB vaccine containing purified HBHA and a novel adjuvant that can be tested in human clinical trials.
MTBVAC is an attenuated strain from a clinical isolate of Mtb by inactivation of two genes essential for virulence. MTBVAC very recently entered to the first-in-human clinical evaluation for safety and immunogenicity, and this grant will be used to co-fund this clinical trial, which will be executed in Lausanne, Switzerland.
This call originates from a grant TBVI received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Source: TBVI