September 14, 2006
Infectious Disease Research Institute Receives $32 Million Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Foundation Provides Funds for Continuing Work on Vaccine for Leishmaniasis, a Parasitic Disease Affecting more than 12 Million People Worldwide
Seattle, September 14, 2006 - The Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) announced today that it has received a $32 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a therapeutic vaccine for leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that affects an estimated 12 million people worldwide.
IDRI will use the Gates Foundation grant to accelerate development of a candidate vaccine, known as Leish-111f, through clinical trials. The vaccine has already completed an initial safety study in the U.S. and is currently in testing in Peru, Brazil, and Colombia.
"This is a great opportunity to validate a very promising vaccine to treat individuals suffering from this potentially fatal disease," explained Steven Reed, IDRI's founder and its Head of Research and Development. "The prospect of continuing our work is particularly exciting given that a diagnostic test for leishmaniasis that IDRI developed is now being used broadly to guide treatment."
Therapeutic vaccines work by stimulating the immune system to fight disease in an infected individual. IDRI's vaccine employs cutting-edge technology that fuses proteins together in an attempt to stimulate immune cells that can control leishmaniasis.
"For too long, leishmaniasis has been virtually ignored by drug and vaccine developers," said Dr. Tom Brewer, Senior Program Officer for the Gates Foundation's Infectious Diseases Program. "It's exciting that IDRI is moving this vaccine forward. If proven effective, the vaccine could one day help save lives and relieve suffering for hundreds of thousands."
IDRI will employ its expertise in process sciences, formulation, and manufacturing to ensure that the necessary technology is transferred to countries with the greatest burden of leishmaniasis.
About Leishmaniasis
Leishmaniasis is a widespread parasitic disease with frequent epidemics in the Indian subcontinent, Africa, and Latin America. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 12 million people are infected with the disease and that two million people are newly infected each year. WHO has designated leishmaniasis as a priority for vaccine development.
Leishmaniasis is spreading unchecked in some developing countries, and as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, is also spreading in parts of Southern Europe. The disease kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide each year, about 70% of whom are children.
Typically transmitted by blood-sucking sand flies, leishmania are protozoan parasites that inhabit macrophages, the white blood cells of the immune system. Infection can cause fatal organ diseases and disfiguring skin and mucosal diseases.
IDRI is a non-profit organization committed to developing technologies to treat "neglected" diseases that place a significant burden on those living in the developing world. IDRI's mission is accomplished by identifying early scientific leads for vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics - and developing those leads into products that can ultimately be produced in the countries that need them. IDRI achieves its mission by working closely with industry, universities, and hospitals in developed and developing countries, government and private funding agencies, and the World Health Organization. For more information, go to www.idri.org.
(Source contact: Curt Malloy at 206/330-2505 or cmalloy@idri.org)