Leidos and biopharmaceutical company Immunovaccine have expanded a partnership to develop peptide-based vaccines against malaria.
The U.S. Agency for International Development and Leidos selected a vaccine delivery formulation based on Immunovaccine’s DepoVax platform for further research and development through a contract extension, Immunovaccine said Tuesday.
USAID issued the new contract after the two companies completed various milestones under the Leidos Malaria Vaccine Development Program.
“As the program continues to advance, we look forward to the potential for a follow-up clinical study that could leverage our DepoVax technology in the global quest to address malaria,†said Frederic Ors, CEO at Immunovaccine.
The partnership aims to identify target-formulation combinations through additional research efforts.
DepoVax-based vaccine candidates that consist of T and B cell targets worked to protect against the parasite that causes malaria during a study, Immunovaccine noted.