VaxDesign is pleased to be included in this report. Our MIMIC(tm) technology is poised to be at the forefront of progress in vaccine and immunotherapy development and testing. We remain committed to it and the benefits it brings to science, industry, and the world-at-large.

More information about the report can be found here.

October 22, 2007 (ORLANDO, Florida) — VaxDesign Corporation announced today that R&D Magazine has named the VaxDesign MIMIC™ technology as a recipient of the 2007 R&D 100 Awards. The MIMIC™ technology creates a model of the human immune system that fits into a space the size of a small coin. These miniature immune systems can predict the human immune response to vaccines and other products, acting as a “clinical trial in a test tube” before new products are tested in humans.

The MIMIC™ (Model IMmune In vitro Construct) technology uses human white blood cells to create a fully functional immune system that mimics the immune system of the cell donor. MIMIC™ models can rapidly simulate a clinical trial, including the effect of a vaccine or drug on human population subgroups, where responses can be clustered based on genetic diversity, age, gender, and other factors. The models reproduce both innate and adaptive immune responses, and exhibit both humoral and cellular immunity. The models use an automated platform that enables the evaluation of thousands of products per week. VaxDesign anticipates that the MIMIC™ technology will increase success in clinical trials, reducing the time and cost for development of vaccines and other products that interact with the immune system.

“We’re extremely pleased to be recognized by this award,” said William Warren, Ph.D., President and CEO of VaxDesign, “The MIMIC™ technology is an exciting development in the field of immunology. We believe that our technology has the potential to reduce or replace the use of laboratory animals in these applications while providing more accurate and reliable information than is currently attainable before human clinical trials begin. Pharmaceutical companies can use this information to guide the design of more rapid and incisive clinical trials. Most of all, this award validates the dedication and skill of our scientists.”

About the R&D 100 Awards

Started in 1963, the R&D 100 Awards has been called the “The Oscars of Invention” by the The Chicago Tribune. All entries are initially judged by outside experts chosen from among professional consultants, university faculty, and industrial researchers with superior expertise and experience in the areas they are judging. The winning of an R&D 100 Award provides a mark of excellence known to industry, government, and academia as proof that the product is one of the most innovative ideas of the year.

Winners will be formally announced in the September issue of R&D Magazine.

About VaxDesign

VaxDesign develops, manufactures, and markets its proprietary MIMIC™ (Modular IMmmune In vitro Construct) models of the human immune system. The MIMIC™ technology functionally recapitulates the human immune system in an elegantly simple, fully automated format. Our technology predicts the immune reactivity and efficacy of vaccines and certain classes of drugs before they are tested in humans. This “clinical trial in a test tube” may reduce the risk and expense of human clinical trials and may someday replace animal testing for these applications.

William C. Schwartz Industry Innovation Awards are presented to companies from Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties and the City of Orlando. Winning companies are chosen based on their innovation in areas including business processes, technology development, strategic partnerships and products or services.

We wish to thank FirstMonday and the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce for allowing us to provide the article for downloading.

Download the FirstMonday article, “Breaking Out.” (5.3 mb PDF)

Lassa virus (LASV), a member of the Arenaviridae family, causes a severe, often fatal, hemorrhagic fever that is endemic to West Africa; where as many as 300,000 infections occur per year. The mortality rate for hospitalized Lassa fever patients is 15%-20%, and during epidemics, the rate can reach as high as 50%. Furthermore, approximately one-third of Lassa fever cases result in deafness. The virus is maintained in nature by its peridomestic host, the Mastomys spp. rat, and is primarily transmitted to humans by aerosolized urine of infected animals. LASV has also been associated with severe nosocomial outbreaks involving health care workers and laboratory personnel Presently, there is no licensed vaccine or anti-viral therapy available for the prevention or treatment of this disease. The threat posed by LASV is heightened further by the potential use of the virus as a biological weapon, which is substantiated by the stability of the virion, demonstrated person-to-person transmission, the severity of disease, lack of therapeutic and prophylactic reagents, and the capacity for aerosilization. As a result, LASV is classified as a Category A agent by the Centers for Disease Control. Collectively, these factors underscore the need for effective vaccines or therapies against Lassa fever.

The proposed CRADA will generate human immune cells that secrete LASV-specific antibodies for use as a rapid and effective therapy against infection. Treatment efficacy will be characterized using in vitro and in vivo methods.