Inviragen secures $15.5 million to develop needle-free dengue vaccine

FORT COLLINS – Inviragen and PharmaJet announced a five-year, $15.5
million contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases to advance the development of a needle-free dengue vaccine.

The award will fund preclinical studies, regulatory filings,
manufacturing and clinical testing of Inviragen’s dengue vaccine,
DENVax, delivered with PharmaJet’s needle-free injection device.

Inviragen got its start in Fort Collins in 2005 with an exclusive
license to develop a dengue vaccine from the Centers for Disease
Control. In 2009, it merged with a Singapore company to continue to
develop vaccines against infectious diseases in emerging economies.
PharmaJet, based in Golden, develops needle-free injection technology.

“This NIAID contract will allow Inviragen and PharmaJet to continue our
pioneering development of a needle-less dengue vaccine,´ said Dan
Stinchcomb, Inviragen’s CEO in a prepared statement. “The PharmaJet
injector has many properties that make it ideal for administering a
dengue vaccine worldwide, potentially saving lives in affected countries
and reducing the spread of the disease to new regions.”

An estimated 3.5 billion people live in countries that have frequent
dengue outbreaks. The viruses are spread to humans by mosquitoes and
cause an estimated 30 million to 50 million cases of dengue fever and up
to 2 million cases of life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever every
year, according to information from Inviragen. A recent outbreak in
Florida hints at the potential for a global spread of the disease.

The typical dengue vaccine requires multiple injections with long
intervals between doses to be effective. Preliminary studies by
Invirigen and PharmaJet indicate that the vaccine can be successfully
delivered in one or two doses, and the two companies continue to work in
that direction.

“Our ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial is assessing the safety and immune
responses after both subcutaneous and intradermal delivery of DENVax by
needle,´ said Jorge Osorio, Inviragen’s chief scientific officer, in the
statemnet. “Under this NIAID contract, we aim to test DENVax delivery
with the PharmaJet device in children and adults in South America and
Southeast Asia, regions that are significantly impacted by dengue
disease.”

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