FIT Biotech Ltd and TBVI join forces to develop
new generation of tuberculosis vaccine
A new tuberculosis vaccine could save the lives of millions of people
The Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI) helps institutes and companies develop new vaccines against tuberculosis, enabling the current BCG vaccine to be improved or replaced. FIT Biotech Ltd has developed a highly efficient DNA vaccination technology that will be applied to develop new, more efficient tuberculosis vaccines.
According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, 1.77 million people died of tuberculosis in 2007; 456 000 of them were co-infected with HIV/AIDS. More than 9 million became infected, especially in Asia and Africa. New vaccines are of great importance in fighting tuberculosis, because the traditional BCG vaccine is not always effective, particularly in adults and adolescents.
TBVI, a spin off of the EU funded FP6 project TBVAC, facilitates and coordinates the development of new vaccines. It was officially launched on November 13, 2008 at an International Conference on Poverty-Related Diseases (PRD), organised by the European Commission DG Research. TBVI fosters development of new vaccines against tuberculosis through projects in which research institutes collaborate with pharmaceutical companies, including SME’s.
Tuberculosis is an increasing danger for global health also for Europe. New discoveries and technologies are necessary to deliver second generation vaccines enabling the objective of eliminating tuberculosis by 2050. This objective will be reached by the translation of discoveries into concrete vaccines and diagnostics. TBVI stimulates and brokers this translation. As a consequence European Research capacity is strengthened and contributes to the European Knowledge based economy.
TBVI and FIT Biotech are delighted to announce their partnership. FIT is an SME based in Tampere, Finland. It has developed and owns innovative technology which significantly increases the efficacy of DNA vaccination, called GTU® technology. The partnership with the TBVI consortium will allow translation of FIT’s promising GTU® technology into concrete new vaccines against tuberculosis. This collaboration will enhance progress on the development of new vaccines acquired under the EU sponsored programs.
Potentially successful candidate vaccines are waiting to be exploited, says Professor Paul Henri Lambert of the medical faculty of the University of Geneva. Lambert is chair of the steering committee of TBVI. He has held various positions at the WHO in the field of vaccine development and has more than three hundred scientific publications to his name.
According to Lambert, the collaboration with FIT enhances chances ‘to move TB vaccines from scientific dreams to industrial reality. This collaboration will profit from the collaboration of the best scientists belonging to high-level research groups in Europe, all of whom collaborate in TBVI. That is unique.’
Dr. Peter Piot, former Executive Director of UNAIDS, presently affiliated at Imperial College in London and member of the board of trustees of TBVI says that TBVI is a very much needed innovative model to translate discovery into usable vaccines. It is complementary to existing models and foundations and merits strong support from governments and other sources. Its success will help to control Tuberculosis and reduce the heavy burden of Tuberculosis in HIV/AIDS infected people.
The Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative arose out of the successful TB Vaccine Cluster and TB-VAC projects, in which European research funds (from the EU’s Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, FP-5 and FP-6) were used to link up scientific research and industrial development within a unique consortium with the objective of identifying good candidates for new vaccines. Four candidate vaccines supported through these projects are now in clinical development and evaluated in phase I and II clinical trials.
For additional information:
FIT Biotech Ltd – Kalevi Reijonen
Tel: +358 408 435 695
About FIT Biotech Ltd.
FIT Biotech (www.fitbiotech.com) is an innovative medical biotechnology company based in Tampere, Finland and Tartu, Estonia engaged in the development and commercialisation of its proprietary Gene Transport Unit (GTU) technology and GTU product applications in DNA vaccination as well as in immuno- and gene therapies. The Company has 40 employees.E-mail
