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Soligenix Announces $1.5 Million NIH Small Business Innovation Research Award Advancing COVID-19 Vaccine Development
Supports CoVaccine HT™ platform development PRINCETON, N.J., Dec. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Soligenix, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNGX) (Soligenix or the Company), a
About this update from Soligenix, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Supports CoVaccine HT™ platform development\n\n\nPRINCETON, N.J., Dec. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Soligenix, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNGX) (Soligenix or the Company), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing products to treat rare diseases where there is an unmet medical need, announced today that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded Soligenix a Direct to Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant of approximately $1.5 million to support manufacture, formulation (including thermostabilization) and characterization of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) and EVD (Ebola Virus Disease) vaccine candidates in conjunction with the CoVaccine HT™ (CoVaccine) adjuvant. This award also will support immune characterization of this novel, emulsified adjuvant that has unique potency and compatibility with lyophilization strategies to enable thermostabilization of subunit vaccines.\nCiVax™ is the Company's heat stable subunit vaccine candidate for the prevention of COVID-19, the infection caused by SARS-CoV-2. Ongoing collaborations with Axel Lehrer, PhD, Associate Professor (Vaccinology) in the Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology, John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) have demonstrated the feasibility of developing a highly immunogenic vaccine for COVID-19. With significant research dedicated worldwide to the generation of COVID-19 vaccines, it is noteworthy that the essential attributes of a vaccine successful in controlling the ongoing pandemic are believed to include the ability to rapidly stimulate a Th1/Th2 balanced antibody response, raising significant virus neutralizing antibodies, as well as induce potent cell-mediated immunity. Previous work with the CoVaccine adjuvant, which Soligenix licensed from BTG Specialty Pharmaceuticals, a division of Boston Scientific Corporation, has indicated that CoVaccine has these critical characteristics. In addition, unlike other vaccine candidates that have logistical challenges due to cold chain requirements (in some cases requiring maintenance of temperatures less than -70 degrees Celsius), the underlying technology platform has demonstrated the ability to produce single vial vaccines which...