MinervaX Announces the award of a 500,000 DKK (66,000 EUR) grant from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation — “Videnkupon”.
MinervaX, a private biotech company developing a novel vaccine candidate against Group B Streptococcus, the leading cause of lifethreatening bacterial infections in newborn infants, announced that the company had been awarded a public grant (“Videnkupon”) from the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation worth 500,000 DKK for further development relating to manufacturing of its vaccine candidate. The grant is to be used in collaboration with Bioneer A/S, a Danish Contract Research Organization.
According to Per Fischer, D.Phil., Chief Executive Officer of MinervaX, “The award of the grant will help advance the vaccine candidate to the next level of development and prepare it for GMP manufacturing”.
About MinervaX
MinervaX is a Danish biotech company, established in 2010 in order to develop a novel vaccine candidate against Group B Streptococcus (GBS), invented at Lund University by Professor Gunnar Lindahl and his research team at Medical Microbiology.
GBS is responsible for nearly 50% of all severe bacterial infections in newborn infants. These infants are infected by GBS carried by the mother and an infected infant carries a significant risk of either death or long-term disability. Approximately 25 % of women are colonized with GBS in the vaginal flora, from which GBS may spread to the fetus before or during birth. This may lead to in uterus infections, still-births or infections in the infants shortly after birth, resulting in pneumonia, septicaemia and meningitis. GBS infection is also a growing concern in the elderly. A GBS vaccine therefore addresses a major medical need, and will help protect pregnant women,
newborn infants and the elderly against severe disease, long-term disability or death.
The vaccine candidate is based on a novel fusion protein (NN) containing the Nterminal domains of the Rib and Alpha proteins of GBS. The NN fusion protein is capable of eliciting a highly protective immune response in animal models of GBS infection, resulting in protection against the clinically most important strains of GBS.
About Bioneer
Bioneer A/S is a Danish, independent, research-based service company within biomedicine, biomedical technology and biotechnology. Bioneer assists clients within protein production, drug formulation and characterization, immune assays, biomarker services and much more. www.Bioneer.dk
Contacts
Minervax: Per Fischer, Chief Executive Officer of MinervaX:
Phone no.: +45 2025 20 38; Email: pbf@minervax.com
Bioneer: Jeppe Skytte Spicker, Business Development Manager:
Phone no.: +45 4516 04 44; Email: jss@bioneer.dk
