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AVAN News AVANT Immunotherapeutics Receives NIH SBIR Phase 2 Award for Development and Manufacture of Ty800 with VitriLife(R)

NEEDHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAN) today announced that it has been awarded a Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to support further development and manufacture of Ty800, the company’s single dose, oral typhoid vaccine. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded this grant titled “Development and cGMP Manufacture of a Vitrified Typhoid Vaccine”, which provides approximately $750,000 in funding to AVANT.

“We are very pleased to receive this new SBIR grant and the NIAID’s commitment to further development and cGMP manufacture of Ty800 with bulk drying processes to achieve temperature stability,” said Una S. Ryan, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Inc. “This funding allows us to move the Ty800 program forward using outside sources to help support the cost of Ty800 vaccine development. The development of a safe and effective typhoid fever vaccine is important for protecting residents, travelers and military personnel from typhoid fever in endemic areas.”

AVANT has designed the Ty800 vaccine to offer rapid, oral, single-dose protection against Salmonella typhi, the cause of typhoid fever. The Ty800 vaccine was developed using genetic techniques to delete specific genes known to be essential to the virulence of S. typhi. The NIAID is currently conducting a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of Ty800 designed to show that the vaccine is well tolerated in humans and rapidly elicits strong immune responses.

About AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Inc.

AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Inc. discovers and develops innovative vaccines and therapeutics that harness the human immune system to prevent and treat disease. Five of AVANT’s products are in clinical development, including a treatment to reduce complement-mediated tissue damage associated with cardiac bypass surgery and a novel vaccine for cholesterol management. AVANT is also developing a pipeline of preventative vaccines for biodefense, travelers’, military, and global health needs based on AVANT’S rapid-protecting, single-dose, oral and temperature stable vaccine technology.

Additional information on AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Inc. can be obtained through our site on the World Wide Web: http://www.avantimmune.com.

Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and reflect AVANT’s current views with respect to future events and financial performance. There are a umber of important factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement made by AVANT. These factors include, but are not limited to: (1) the integration of multiple technologies and programs; (2) the ability to adapt AVANT’s vectoring systems to develop new, safe and effective orally administered vaccines against anthrax and plague or other any other microbes used as bioweapons and other disease causing agents; (3) the ability to successfully complete development and commercialization of TP10, CETi-1, CholeraGarde® (Peru-15), Ty800 and other products; (4) the cost, timing, scope and results of ongoing safety and efficacy trials of TP10, CETi-1, CholeraGarde® (Peru-15), Ty800 and other preclinical and clinical testing; (5) the ability to successfully complete product research and further development, including animal, pre-clinical and clinical studies of TP10, CETi-1, CholeraGarde® (Peru-15), Ty800 and other products; (6) the ability of the Company to manage multiple late stage clinical trials for a variety of product candidates; (7) changes in existing and potential relationships with corporate collaborators; (8) the availability, cost, delivery and quality of clinical and commercial grade materials supplied by contract manufacturers; (9) the timing, cost and uncertainty of obtaining regulatory approvals to use TP10, CETi-1, CholeraGarde® (Peru-15) and Ty800, among other purposes, for adults undergoing cardiac surgery, to raise serum HDL cholesterol levels and to protect travelers and people in endemic regions from diarrhea causing diseases, respectively; (10) the ability to obtain substantial additional funding; (11) the ability to develop and commercialize products before competitors and that are superior to the alternatives developed by competitors; (12) AVANT’s expectations regarding research and development expenses and general and administrative expenses; (13) AVANT’s expectations regarding cash balances, anticipated royalty payments and expenses, including infrastructure expenses; and (14) other factors detailed from time to time in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should carefully review all of these factors, and you should be aware that there may be other factors that could cause these differences. These forward-looking statements were based on information, plans and estimates at the date of this report, and we do not promise to update any forward-looking statements to reflect changes in underlying assumptions or factors, new information, future events or other changes.