New Jersey’s VaxInnate is developing inoculations to ward off seasonal and pandemic flu, dengue fever and Clostridium difficile. The well-capitalized company has raised a recent round of $6 million, according to a regulatory filing.
The company genetically fuses vaccine antigens to flagellin, a protein that forms the flagella of a bacterium that’s known for being highly recognizable by the immune system. Indeed, mammals in particular are known to have a strong innate (thus the company’s name) immune response to flagellated bacteria.
“Using this technology, vaccines can be produced by low-cost, highly scalable recombinant DNA techniques, avoiding many of the challenges and pitfalls of egg-based or cell-culture vaccine production,” the company said.
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Vaxinnate claims it’s got the ability to do rapid-response manufacturing, generating 50 million doses within 5-6 months, it said, with the first doses available at the three month mark – making it able to meet a pandemic head-on. The company’s able to do this, it said, because its vaccine’s developed in fast-reproducing bacteria.
The company, whose technology spun out of Yale University more than a decade ago, has raised well over $100 million to date from investors like HealthCare Ventures, Oxford Bioscience Partners LLC, MedImmune Ventures, Inc., CHL Medical Partners, New Leaf Venture Partners, Canaan Partners and The Wellcome Trust. Notably, it secured a three-year contract in 2011 with the government’s Health and Human Services for $117 million to develop flu vaccines – making this recent tranche a drop in the company’s deep-pocketed bucket.
