Novo funds Danish researchers for new vaccine platform

Development grant

A new vaccine technology developed at the University of Copenhagen has attracted funding from Scandinavian company Novo A/S and the Nova Nordisk Foundation. The award will be used to create a plan for the development and use of the platform, called InVacc.

“The grants awarded through our Novo Seeds programme are only for very select projects that show outstanding promise, both scientifically and commercially,” said Novo Seeds Investment Director, Stephen Christgau. “The InVacc platform is definitely one of those. Our grants will help the team to develop and commercialise their groundbreaking research and validate the advantages of the vaccine platform against competing technologies.”

Peter Holst, a member of the research team, and the Technical Transfer Unit at the University of Copenhagen are seeking backing from international funds to take the project to its next phase of development and ultimately into clinical trials.

The InVacc platform consists of a chain of amino acids attached to a gene of the virus being vaccinated against. This is then inserted into an incapacitated flu-like virus, such as the adenovirus, and is injected into the body. According to the university, the platform triggers a broader and more aggressive immune response, enabling the immune system to quickly seek out and destroy the disease when it invades.

The university also says that scientists using the technology have been able to provide 100 per cent protection against different, lethal strains of flu given to test animals.

The protection given by the platform appears to be rapid – in animal tests, complete protection was achieved in less than three days after a single vaccination using the InVacc platform. The researchers think this could have significant implications for the handling of epidemics, quickly halting infection rates and preventing major outbreaks.

The scientists also believe that the new technology will be effective despite the ability of different viruses and bacteria to constantly mutate and develop resistance.

“We are excited to be working on the vaccine technology,” said Associate Professor Jan Pravsgaard, the lead scientist behind the project. “The platform has proved very effective in our recent tests and could have enormous potential. In principle, vaccines of this type could be used to inoculate against a range of deadly viruses, bacteria and other disease-causing agents and even be used to cure certain cancers once they take hold.”