Inviragen Merges with SingVax

Inviragen and SingVax have merged their complementary vaccine pipelines and international product development capabilities. This is to create a company that is developing a range of vaccines for infectious diseases that are prevalent in emerging economies.

Concurrently with the merger, the combined company raised US$15 million in a Series A equity investment from a syndicate of international venture capital investors, including Charter Life Sciences, Venture Investors, Bio*One Capital and Phillip Private Equity.

The combined company will retain the Inviragen name and will have research and corporate operations in Fort Collins, Colorado, vaccine development operations in Singapore and vaccine testing capabilities in Madison, Wisconsin.

“Post-merger, Inviragen has three vaccines poised to begin human clinical trials,” noted Dr Dan Stinchcomb, Inviragen CEO. “During the next 18 months, these clinical studies will test vaccine safety and measure the immune responses induced by these three vaccines to establish “proof-of-concept” of their efficacy.”

Inviragen’s lead vaccine is designed to protect against dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease that threatens 3.6 billion people who live in tropical and subtropical regions around the globe.

Human clinical testing of the dengue vaccine is expected to commence in 2010 in the US, Colombia, and Singapore.

The second vaccine is designed to protect against hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD).

The third vaccine protects against Japanese encephalitis, a mosquito-borne virus that causes 35,000 to 50,000 severe clinical cases and kills 10,000 to 15,000 children throughout Asia every year.

Inviragen is also developing vaccines to protect against other important infectious diseases, including chikungunya, HPV, West Nile and influenza.