Corixa Corporation has been awarded a $2.3 million Challenge Grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to develop a new candidate vaccine for the treatment of tuberculosis.
As a result, Corixa will conduct preclinical and clinical testing of a new candidate vaccine produced using M. tuberculosis proteins, combined with formulations developed by SmithKline Beecham Biologicals containing components discovered and manufactured by Corixa.
Corixa scientists will test these proteins in animals for their ability to stimulate an appropriate immune response, and then combine several of these proteins into a candidate vaccine for further testing.
“We are pleased to have been selected as a recipient of a Challenge Grant from NIAID,” said Steven Reed, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and executive vice president at Corixa.
“We have been working with SmithKline Beecham for the past several years to rigorously define protective antigens from Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
We have constructed a number of recombinant fusion protein vaccines that have demonstrated significant protection in animal models of tuberculosis infection.
We are pleased that NIAID shares our enthusiasm for the potential use of such vaccines to prevent tuberculosis in patient populations throughout the world.”
Corixa is a research- and development-based biotechnology company committed to treating and preventing autoimmune diseases, cancer and infectious diseases by understanding and directing the immune system.
Corixa is focused on immunotherapeutic products and has a broad technology platform enabling both fully integrated vaccine design and the use of its separate, proprietary vaccine components on a standalone basis.