Completed Infection & Immunity Lungs & Breathing

Development of an oral adenovirus-based vaccine against influenza for pandemic protection.

Funder Wellcome Charity-funded
Recipient organisation Paxvac Inc.
Funding £5.0M
Period Jun 2008 — Dec 2012

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

A tablet that dissolves in the mouth could replace the needle for pandemic flu vaccination. PaxVax is engineering a common cold virus—Adenovirus Type 4, already used safely in over 10 million U.S. military personnel—to carry influenza proteins and trigger broad immunity. The vaccine is designed to be stable at room temperature, cheap to manufacture in disposable bioreactors, and quick to produce at scale. Current flu vaccines rely on eggs or cell culture, take months to manufacture, and require cold chains that fail in many parts of the world. During a pandemic, those delays and logistics become deadly. If this tablet works, governments could stockpile it before a crisis, then distribute it without refrigeration or trained injectors. The vaccine also targets two influenza proteins—hemagglutinin and matrix protein—potentially offering broader protection than seasonal shots, which might allow pre-pandemic stockpiling even before the exact strain is known. The project will optimise the viral vector, test it in mice, ferrets, and rabbits, manufacture it under clinical-grade conditions, and then run a Phase I safety trial in humans.

View original technical description
PaxVax proposes to develop an oral tablet pandemic influenza vaccine. The vaccine will be suited for pandemic protection because of its efficacy, safety, delivery, room temperature stability, speed to production and cost of production. PaxVax combines three technologies from disparate fields. 1. The vaccine vector is a replication competent Adenovirus Type 4 (Ad4) identical to that used as an oral tablet vaccine in over 10 million recipients by the U.S. military. 2. The military vaccine is engineered to produce large quantities of influenza H5 hemagluttinin antigen driven by the Ad4 major late promoter during replication. The military vaccine is further modified to place a second influenza epitope from the influenza matrix protein in the hypervariable region of the Ad4 hexon exterior. Broad spectrum T cell responses may enable stockpiling vaccine prior to a pandemic. 3. The vaccine will be grown in A549 cells and manufactured in-house utilizing disposable bioreactors. Economies of scale drive down tablet and packaging costs. Recently developed drying technologies enable room temperature stability. Research Goals: 1) Optimize the vaccine to present influenza antigens. 2) Conduct animal studies in mice, ferrets and rabbits. 3) cGMP manufacture vaccine. 4) Conduct Phase I safety trials and demonstrate appropriate immune responses.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Henderson (EPMC Awardee)

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

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Pre-clinical development of an influenza vaccine to induce broad protection through multiple immune mechanisms
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Developing a 'universal' pandemic influenza vaccine for use in humans and livestock
Pre-clinical Development of an Adenovirus Vectored Universal Influenza Vaccine

Original classification

Strategic Award - Innovations

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.