Date: 2014-02-21
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound: MVA-BN vaccine platform
Company: Bavarian Nordic (Denmark) U.S.Department of Defense (USA)
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases
Type agreement: R&D
Action mechanism: MVA-BN (Modified Vaccinia Ankara - Bavarian Nordic) is an adaptable vaccine platform suitable for addressing a wide variety of infectious diseases. In addition to developing MVA-BN as a safer smallpox vaccine essential to protecting the immune-compromised population, Bavarian Nordic has conducted preclinical and clinical studies of recombinant MVA-BN-based vaccines for a variety of infectious diseases and numerous types of cancer.
Disease: Burkholderia pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei infections
Details: * On February 21, 2014, Bavarian Nordic has announced that its MVA-BN vaccine platform technology has been selected by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a part of the United States Department of Defense, for the development of a vaccine against two potential biological threats to national security - Burkholderia pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei. These bacterial pathogens have been determined to pose a material threat sufficient to affect the United States\' national security. B. pseudomallei causes melioidosis, a human disease endemic in Southeast Asia and northern Australia. B. mallei causes glanders, a zoonotic disease primarily occurring in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Central/South America. Because of the lengthy antibiotic therapy required to treat melioidosis and glanders, the suboptimal clinical outcomes, possible biothreat applications, and public health implications, there is significant interest in developing new vaccines capable of protecting against these agents, for which effective vaccines do not currently exist.
Under this new $ 0.5 million contract Bavarian Nordic will design, generate and test MVA-BN-based recombinant vaccines against Burkholderia. If the contract yields a successful proof of concept, DTRA may support further development of the vaccine through a larger contract award.
DTRA is the fourth U.S. Government agency to collaborate with Bavarian Nordic on the development of novel biodefense vaccines. Other ongoing collaborations include the development of vaccines against smallpox, filoviruses (Ebola and Marburg) and foot-and-mouth disease, for which the company has received funding from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Department of Homeland Security\'s Science and Technology Directorate.
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