GenVec Awarded Grant For RSV Vaccine Program
GAITHERSBURG, Md., May 3, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- GenVec, Inc. (GNVC)
announced today that it has received a Phase I Small Business Innovation and
Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support the
Company's Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine program.
The SBIR grant, valued at approximately $590,000, will provide funding to further
understand the impact of maternal immunity against RSV on the generation of a
protective immune response in newborns. This is an important factor in the
development of an effective vaccine for the pediatric population.
"These funds will be used to further advance our novel pediatric RSV vaccine. RSV
has long been recognized as a priority target for vaccine development, and our
program has the potential to address this significant unmet medical need," said
Jason Gall, PhD, Senior Director of Research and head of GenVec's RSV program.
About Respiratory Syncytial Virus
RSV is the single most important viral cause of lower respiratory infections in
infants and young children and there is no approved vaccine. According to the
World Health Organization, nearly all U.S. children have been infected with RSV
by two years of age. Although a majority of RSV infections are usually mild, the
infection can result in severe lower respiratory tract infection due to
bronchiolitis and pneumonia in infants less than 1 year old, which causes up to
130,000 pediatric hospitalizations per year in the U.S. RSV also causes repeated
infections throughout life, placing the elderly and individuals with compromised
cardiac, pulmonary, or immune systems at risk for severe disease. Among the
institutionalized elderly, it is estimated there are about 10,000 deaths annually
from RSV. |
