There was some talk this week about the company that developed a malaria vaccine "it was reported a breakthrough not by fda but by the editors of the article
Here is the article name
Early promise for malaria vaccine that mimics bug bites
Aug 9, 2013, 11.07AM IST
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After a week, volunteers were checked for infection, and those who were infected were treated for malaria. The team found that those who got the higher doses of the vaccine were far less likely to develop malaria that those who got lower doses or were not vaccinated.
In the study, only three of 15 participants who received higher dosages of the vaccine became infected, compared to 16 of 17 participants in the lower dosage group who became infected. Among the 12 participants who were not vaccinated, 11 became infected after exposure to infected mosquitoes.
Manufacturing the vaccine was itself an achievement. The company that produced it, Sanaria of Rockville, Maryland, was able to expose sterile mosquitoes to the malaria-infected blood, irradiate them to weaken the parasites that cause the disease and then - and this is the hard part - dissect the tiny insects to extract those parasites. Only then could they make the vaccine.
"The speed with which they were able to get enough material surprised me," Fauci said. "I thought they would never be able to do it. And they did it - and they did it very quickly and in a large amount."
The current vaccine is delivered intravenously and not through injections, which could be impractical for use in a widespread vaccination program.
"Now we've got to figure out a way to deliver it in a way that's practical for mass vaccination programs," Fauci said.
Scientists from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the Naval Medical Research Center participated in the study, which also holds out hope for finally shielding US military personnel stationed in areas with the disease.
A statement from the Navy said malaria was responsible for "a greater loss of manpower than enemy fire in all conflicts occurring in tropical regions during the 20th century."
Notice the quote
"Now we've got to figure out a way to deliver it in a way that's practical for mass vaccination programs," Fauci said.
Inovio is working on solving that very big problem
Inovio Pharmaceuticals & U.S. Army Receive $3.5 Million Biodefense Grant to Further Develop Mass Vaccination Device
Inovio to Advance Painless Device to Simultaneously Deliver Multiple Vaccines Using Electroporation Technology
Apr 10, 2013
BLUE BELL, Pa., April 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE MKT: INO) has been selected to receive a $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to advance the development of its next generation DNA vaccine delivery device capable of simultaneously administering multiple synthetic vaccines via skin surface electroporation. Inovio is collaborating with Dr. Connie Schmaljohn, Chief Scientist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). The goal of this public/private partnership is to develop a device that would facilitate rapid vaccination of U.S. troops stationed around the world against multiple infectious diseases and protect civilian populations from pandemic threats.
Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio's president & CEO, said, "This new device would provide a means to rapidly and painlessly deliver multiple vaccines simultaneously to large groups of people. This collaboration builds on Inovio's strong relationship with Dr. Schmaljohn and her team at USAMRIID in which Inovio is bringing medical innovation to several biodefense efforts. Moreover, the advancements from this project will enable rapid and efficient delivery of Inovio's SynCon® vaccines for universal flu, HIV, and other infectious diseases on a mass scale."
The Inovio team of researchers has been collaborating with USAMRIID scientists to advance a DNA vaccine for the Lassa virus, which the DOD has designated as a "Category A" pathogen. In previous testing, an optimized DNA vaccine for the Lassa virus delivered by surface electroporation demonstrated complete protection against a virus challenge in both guinea pig and non-human primate disease models. Although prior results are highly encouraging and electroporation delivery is very tolerable from a patient perspective, improvements are still needed to make the technology more suitable for multiple vaccine administrations and mass vaccinations.
This NIAID grant builds on a 2011 Small Business Innovation Research Grant in which Inovio demonstrated a delivery device that was designed to deliver two separate DNA vaccines simultaneously. In this new program, Inovio will develop the multi-vaccine electroporation delivery device to address biodefense vaccine targets – notably to advance the Lassa virus vaccine through to clinical studies.
The research effort will investigate the novel simultaneous delivery of multiple DNA vaccines — final testing will use the Lassa virus and other arenaviruses — at distinct spatial sites while avoiding immune interference between vaccines. In addition, this new device platform could significantly increase the dose of vaccine delivered at one time which is a current limitation in vaccine delivery to the skin. The new skin surface device resulting from this research will leverage Inovio's latest surface DNA vaccine delivery technology, based on the company's proprietary electroporation delivery platform which uses millisecond electrical pulses to dramatically improve cellular uptake of the vaccine and resulting immune responses. Inovio vaccines delivered with electroporation devices for cancer and infectious diseases have previously demonstrated best in class T-cell and antibody responses in clinical studies.
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