Biopharmaceutical company Soligenix Inc., has entered into a collaboration with Seattle, Washington-based Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) to develop select biodefense vaccines using IDRI’s potent and safe synthetic adjuvants in conjunction with Soligenix’s proprietary subunit proteins and thermostability platform (known as ThermoVax).
Synthetic adjuvants are immunologically active compounds that are added to vaccines to aid in the induction of enhanced protective immune responses. IDRI has state of the art expertise in developing and formulating a range of adjuvants that have proven capable of enhancing the level and breadth of cellular and humoral immune responses to a variety of vaccine antigens. The combination of these technologies has the potential to result in vaccines with robust characteristics for long-term stability and rapid onset of protective immunity, desired features of vaccines that would be stockpiled for emergency use.
The first developmental objective of the collaboration is to assess the combination of one of IDRI’s adjuvant compounds that has been shown to enhance the generation of high titer neutralizing antibodies to anthrax toxin with Soligenix’s second generation DNI (Dominant Negative Inhibitor) subunit protein anthrax vaccine candidate, known as VeloThrax. VeloThrax is Soligenix’s hyperimmunogenic derivative of anthrax rPA (recombinant protective antigen), a candidate vaccine to protect against anthrax disease. Concurrently, the second developmental objective is to assess the combination of an IDRI adjuvant with formulations of RiVax, Soligenix’s vaccine against ricin toxin under development. The goal for both vaccines is to achieve stable products that will promote rapid onset of protective immunity in humans to minimize the number of vaccinations required for protective immunity.
“IDRI is enthusiastic about working with Soligenix to support their efforts in developing their anthrax and ricin vaccine candidates, and are highly confident that IDRI's adjuvant technology can help build effective vaccines,” said Darrick Carter PhD, IDRI’s vice president of Adjuvant Technology. “These new candidate vaccines could be the critical solution in providing protection to people in the event there is a bioterror threat from the release of anthrax or ricin toxins.”
The initial work of this collaboration is to be carried out under Soligenix’s existing $9.4 million National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) grant supporting development of advanced heat stable vaccines against anthrax and ricin toxins. The objectives of this work are consistent with the development of product enhancements that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has advocated for effective biodefense vaccines: long shelf life, rapid onset of immunity, post exposure prophylaxis, and surge capacity for production. For conventional vaccines, achievement of those objectives will also provide solutions that ameliorate problems with cold storage of vaccines. A recent report by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) entitled “Vaccines for Children Programme: Vulnerabilities in Vaccine Management,” demonstrates the need for thermostable vaccines to eliminate the need for cold chain manufacture and storage. Excursions from cold chain temperatures lead to the inactivation of vaccines, thereby putting recipients of vaccines at risk. Together, IDRI and Soligenix are pursuing additional government development funding to further support this work.
“We are very pleased to be able to enter into a partnership of this type with IDRI,” stated Christopher J Schaber, PhD, president and CEO of Soligenix. Schaber further added, “IDRI possesses novel R&D, manufacturing and technical expertise in the field of adjuvants. We believe that with the addition of IDRI’s potent adjuvants to our hyperimmunogenic anthrax and ricin toxin vaccines, we will have the potential to develop highly competitive biodefense vaccines that can address the exact needs of the US government with regard to rapid onset immunity with just one or two doses. As with any biodefense program, our goal is to have VeloThrax and RiVax stockpiled by the US government in its strategic national stockpile.”
The IDRI is a not-for-profit organization committed to applying innovative science to the research and development of products to prevent, detect, and treat infectious diseases of poverty.
Soligenix is a development stage biopharmaceutical company developing products to treat life-threatening side effects of cancer treatments and serious gastrointestinal diseases, and vaccines for certain bioterrorism agents.