The company is developing a second-generation version of its universal influenza vaccine.
BiondVax Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (TASE:BNDX) announced yesterday that the Office of the Chief Scientist has approved a NIS 2.7 million grant to develop a second-generation version of the company's universal influenza vaccine. The grant will cover half of the project's planned NIS 5.5 million cost.
The project is going ahead despite the failure in the safety trial of the first-generation version of the vaccine. The Office of the Chief Scientist helped finance that project as well.
BiondVax CEO Dr. Ron Babekof said, "We provided the team from the Office of the Chief Scientist with the information about the failure of the first trial. After a review, they agreed with us that the product probably caused side effects arising from the protein integrated into the product. It was therefore agreed to provide a development grant for the second-generation of the product."
Biondvax is attempting to develop a universal vaccine for a large number of flu-types on the basis of the research done by Ruth Arnon of the Weitzmann Intitute, who also discovered Copaxone.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 8, 2008
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