Novavax, a clinical stage biotechnology company, has created a proprietary process to develop a vaccine candidate against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). According to Gale Smith, the company’s vice president of vaccine development, the process uses select components of SARS and other structural proteins that combine with cell membranes to form distinctive SARS coronavirus nanoparticles, which are nearly identical to the human SARS virus but lack the genetic material needed to replicate and cause disease.
"This new approach to create VLPs will allow us to continue our work to develop a SARS vaccine candidate and expand the potential applications of our vaccine technology to a broad range of infectious diseases around the world," says Rahul Singhvi, president and chief executive officer of Novavax..
SARS is a viral respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus, and was first reported in Asia in February 2003. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), subsequent to the 2003 breakout, over 8,000 people were infected, with 774 reported deaths.
While there is currently no known reported SARS transmission globally, WHO continues to monitor the SARS situation on a global basis as concerns remain about the reemergence of the illness.
Novavax has received renewed research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue preclinical development of SARS vaccine candidates using Novavax’s virus-like particle (VLP) technology.
