PanVax collaborates with the Institute Pasteur

Prima BioMed subsidiary PanVax has entered into a research collaboration with the Institute Pasteur in France.

The agreement will investigate the potential for development of a malaria vaccine based on PanVax's DCtag technology in combination with the Institute's two key malarial protein vaccine candidates.

According to Prima CEO Marcus Clark, the partners hope that the combination of the Pasteur proteins with the DCtag technology will improve the efficacy of the vaccine. Results are expected to be available within 12 months.

"If we could improve efficacy we could move forward very rapidly into the clinical phase," said Clark.

Intellectual property (IP) arising from the collaboration will be shared between the two parties, Clark explained, with each partner retaining rights to the IP brought to the collaboration. In addition, they have signed a memorandum of understanding for further collaboration if it is successful.

PanVax has previously demonstrated strong protection from malaria infection in mouse models of the disease using their proprietary DCtag technology, which boosts the immune response. The collaborative study will allow the technology to be further assessed using a human malarial vaccine incorporating two proteins from Plasmodium falciparum.

These proteins, which come from the liver and the blood stages of the malarial life cycle, are in development as potential vaccines at the Pasteur Institute.

Once the constructs have been developed they will be tested in mouse models for the human disease.

"We'll be able to see whether the combination of DCtag and their proteins is as good or better than what they have now," said John Bates, R&D manager at Prima.