Canadians lead international team developing novel vaccines

Toronto, ON – Dalton Pharma Services, a privately owned pharmaceutical services provider, says it has been awarded funding from ISTPCanada as part of an international vaccine development project under the 2013 Canada-China Joint Initiative on Human Vaccine Research and Development program.

The international team represents leaders in both academic and industrial vaccine development including the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization – International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac), the Pan-Provincial Vaccine Enterprise Inc. (PREVENT), the South China United Vaccine Institute and the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease. Additional funding was awarded to VIDO-InterVac through Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Chinese partners through the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.

The goal of the project is to complete the pre-clinical development of the world’s first vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and parainfluenza type 3 (PIV3) virus, and ultimately a co-formulated combination vaccine. The project leverages a novel adjuvant which is designed to induce a powerful balanced immune response against a variety of viral and bacterial antigens. The development of vaccines against the two viruses would result in a significant health impact for Canada, China and the rest of the world, with over 800 million of the young and aged citizens especially at risk from these viruses.

“This project has brought together the complementary expertise of leading Canadian and Chinese organizations in their respective fields,” said Dr. Andrew Potter, director and CEO of VIDO-InterVac and PREVENT. “This international collaborative approach will accelerate the development of these vaccines.”

, said, “We are very pleased that Dalton’s many years of experience in the development of components for novel vaccines will be utilized along with the international experts assembled on this team towards improving public health around the world,” said Peter Pekos, Dalton’s president and CEO.