Rockville, Md.-based
FinaBiosolutions LLC has entered into a partnership with University of Maryland Professor Frank Robb to develop and manufacture a low-cost component in a pneumonia vaccine. PATH, an international nonprofit dedicated to global health, is funding the agreement between the biotechnology company and Robb with an under $1 million grant.
Although the pneumonia vaccine is its major use, the component can be used in other vaccines as well, according to Andrew Lees, FinaBiosolutions’ scientific director. The grant runs through spring of 2014.
Commercially-produced pneumonia vaccines are available but are difficult to make and/or expensive, says Lees. In the U.S., a pneumonia vaccine costs $100 to $150 per dose, and three doses are needed.
He says that in India, for example, where an estimated 400,000 deaths per year from pneumonia could be prevented with a low-cost vaccine, a private firm wants to make the vaccine at a cost of $2 per dose.
“Our goal is to make the vaccine affordable and available,” says Lees, particularly in third world countries.
Robb holds a joint appointment at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland’s Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, in Baltimore. He studies a unique group of microbes found in extreme environments, surviving in extreme heat and harsh chemical conditions.
Robb has developed and patented several technologies for industrial application of his research. University of Maryland Ventures facilitated the public-private partnership between Robb and FinaBiosolutions, a private research and development stage biotech company.
Lees says that once the vaccine component is developed, the agreement allows PATH “to do what they want with it, especially in India and China.” The same agreement applies to FinaBiosolutions for commercial purposes.
The component can be used by other researches and for products, but Lees says FinaBiosolutions has not calculated its market value.