Elusys Therapeutics Inc has received $1.2 million from the National Institutes for Health (NIH) to support its development of a drug to protect people at risk of serious complications from the smallpox vaccine. One of the biggest concerns with using the smallpox vaccine is the large number of people with compromised immune systems who are highly susceptible to complications from the vaccine.

"For people with compromised immune systems, the vaccine could be as dangerous as smallpox itself," said Stephen Sudovar, president and CEO of Elusys. "The Elusys heteropolymer offers hope that we can protect people who cannot receive the smallpox vaccine and who are at risk of being near others who receive it."

The two-year NIH grant will enable Elusys to identify and study in mice at least one drug that will be a candidate for studies against vaccinia complications in immunocompromised primates. Vaccinia virus is closely related to smallpox and is the active component of the smallpox vaccine.

A large segment of the U.S. population is susceptible to severe adverse reactions or even death associated with the vaccine, including blood borne dissemination of the vaccinia virus. This threat is greater now than when smallpox vaccinations were routine (before 1972) due to the growing population of immunocompromised individuals, which includes people with HIV, cancer patients, and organ transplant recipients. Potential contact with these populations is one of the reasons public health and hospital workers have been reluctant to be vaccinated against smallpox.

Elusys is developing a heteropolymer (HP) to protect immunocompromised people and others at risk from complications of the smallpox vaccine. This heteropolymer will consist of one monoclonal antibody that targets a protein on the vaccinia virus linked to a second monoclonal antibody that attaches to a receptor on red blood cells. The HP will bind the vaccinia virus to red blood cells, thus clearing the virus from the blood stream.