Affinivax Inc., a biotechnology company dedicated to developing novel vaccines, has entered into a collaboration agreement with Nosocomial Vaccine Corporation (NVC), established by ClearPath Development Company with the support of its partner, Astellas Pharma Inc. The collaboration will utilise Affinivax’s proprietary vaccine platform, Multiple Antigen Presentation System (MAPS), to develop vaccines to prevent bacterial nosocomial infections, also referred to as health-care associated infections (HAIs).

The collaboration includes funding from NVC sufficient to support the development of product candidates to advance towards clinical testing.

HAIs are a significant global health concern, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating that 4 per cent of patients in the US will contract an HAI each year in medical facilities, including ambulatory surgical centres, hospice centres, nursing homes and rehabilitation centres. JAMA Internal Medicine has reported that HAIs cost $9.8 billion annually in the US alone. Bacterial nosocomial infections represent one of the most common HAIs, caused by bacteria that are highly resistant to available antibiotic therapies. In addition to the limitations of current treatments against nosocomial infections, there are no vaccines available today for prevention.

“Health-care associated infections represent a major medical challenge today for healthcare workers and patients, and development of a vaccine for prevention of these deadly infections would achieve a major public health goal,” said Dr. Richard Malley, Affinivax’s scientific founder, professor of paediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Kenneth McIntosh Chair in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital.

“I am thrilled to see Affinivax now advance our MAPS vaccines beyond Streptococcus pneumoniae and potentially having a significant impact on patient care by preventing these treatment-resistant infections.”

“Affinivax’s MAPS technology offers the potential to increase breadth of protection with a cost-effective approach, which could enable children to have access to life-saving vaccines against pneumococcus,” said Dr. Mark Alderson, director of PATH’s pneumococcal vaccine project.

“This collaboration with Affinivax exemplifies PATH’s dedication to working with scientists and companies to advance vaccines that can prevent the spread of pneumonia and other pneumococcal diseases among children in the developing world.”

“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to work with NVC to deploy Affinivax’s technology for this important initiative to develop a vaccine to prevent nosocomial infections,” said Steven B. Brugger, CEO of Affinivax.

“This collaboration provides us the opportunity to leverage the power of the MAPS technology to develop vaccines that can protect against infectious diseases, such as nosocomial infections, for which there are no effective immunisation strategies available for children and adults today.”