Two Raleigh-based biotechnology companies, Arbovax, Inc., and Immunobiosciences, Inc., are teaming up to develop a safe and effective vaccine for dengue, a viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes.
Dengue fever is ranked second, only behind malaria, by the World Health Organization for its devastating global impact. There are four versions, or serotypes, of the dengue virus that are related but do not provide cross-protective immunity. Currently, no vaccine is available to prevent the virus, but the potential vaccine market is estimated at over 1 billion dollars.
Arbovax, an early stage company developing vaccines against insect-borne viruses, will develop host range mutations of the dengue 2 virus. These mutations will be formulated with Immunobiosciences' Immune Complex Vaccine (ICV) technology.
Arbovax was started by British-born entrepreneur Malcolm Thomas with a Business Development Loan for slightly more than $16,000 from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in 2006.
Immunobiosciences, founded by Dr. Craig Whitfill based on his research at the University of Arkansas, specializes in ICV technology that has the potential to improve the safety and efficacy of vaccines containing live, attenuated, or killed viruses and bacteria.
New inventions will be jointly held by both companies.
"Arbovax is very excited at the prospect of working with Immunobiosciences," said Thomas, CEO of Arbovax. "We feel their technology has the potential to significantly improve the quality of the immune response when used in conjunction with our modified virus. We see this collaboration as adding considerable value to both companies' research efforts."