Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the most common viral infection known to be transmitted in utero. Congenital infection with HCMV is the leading cause of deafness and can result in death or major neurodevelopmental defects including chorioretinitis and mental retardation. The disease burden due to HCMV currently exceeds that occurring during the height of the epidemic rubella era. HCMV also produces life threatening sequelae in persons who are immunocompromised by drug therapy for transplantation, cancer treatment, or who have HIV infection. Aviron proposes to develop a live attenuated vaccine for the prevention of disease caused by HCMV. They successfully developed molecular genetic processes to engineer HCMV. Using a Phase I SBIR grant, they generated a well-defined series of five recombinant HCMV vaccine candidates. Each candidate contains genetically stable portions of the nonattenuated Toledo HCMV viral genome within a background of the safe, overattenuated Towne HCMV genome. In Phase II of the SBIR program, they propose to produce two of the five chimeras for human testing and determine their safety and immunogenicity in a Phase I clinical trial in collaboration with the NIH VTEU network. Their goal is to select a vaccine strain based on the human data for final commercial development.

Proposed Commercial Applications

NOT AVAILABLE

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Small Business Innovation Research Grants (SBIR) - Phase II (R44)
Project #
3R44AI040792-02S1
Application #
2879284
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG2 (02))
Project Start
1997-06-01
Project End
2000-07-31
Budget Start
1998-08-01
Budget End
1999-07-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1998
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Medimmune Vaccines, Inc.
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Mountain View
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94043