GroPep completes final malaria vaccine milestone

Adelaide-based biotech GroPep (ASX:GRO) has completed the manufacture of two vaccine antigens for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI).

The two antigens, developed by La Trobe University's Prof Robin Anders from merozoite surface protein 2, will be used by the MVI for the formulation of a potential malaria vaccine. Phase I clinical trials of the vaccine are expected to start in 2007.

GroPep has received more than AUD$5 million from the MVI, said GroPep CEO Bob Finder, and the company has now completed the two milestones for the project.

"The first milestone was taking [the antigens] from the researcher's bench and developing a process," said Finder. "Milestone two was taking the process that we developed and making the actual materials," scaling up production and manufacturing to standards that would enable the potential vaccines to be tested in human safety trials.

Finder said GroPep successfully met a number of technical challenges in the manufacturing project. "We went through the process changes, from getting the right impurities to getting it to a purified level that was acceptable to the specifications that could by used in humans," he said.

Finder said that while GroPep was not a contract manufacturer or developer, "our relations are so good with MVI that we would continue to for work with them in the future", particularly if phase I trials are successful and more vaccine was needed for phase II trials.

Malaria kills 7000 people each week and MVI's mission is to accelerate the development of malarial vaccines for the developing world.