Grant: Proof of Principle Program - Phase II

Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent deadly human diseases. Despite this, maximum global coverage continues to be a challenge and concern to public health. A major barrier for vaccine industries remains the ability to reliably produce sufficient vaccine doses in a timely manner, highlighted by the shortcomings of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 vaccination campaign. As a solution to this, we have discovered and developed viral sensitizer technology (VST), a growing collection of compounds with the potential to improve industrial-scale vaccine production with little to no added infrastructure costs. We have successfully met our Phase I Proof of Principle project objectives by demonstrating that VST can enhance by over 10-fold the production of vaccines such as influenza from cells. As a result, we have entered into collaborations with companies such as Sanofi Pasteur (Toronto team), a world leader in vaccine manufacturing, to evaluate the activity of VST for some of their vaccines. Based on promising results indicating that VST enhances the production of laboratory strains of influenza in eggs by nearly 10-fold, we now aim to determine whether VST can enhance influenza vaccine production in fertilized chicken eggs- Sanofi Pasteur's current standard production method for Vaxigrip® and Fluzone®. Our technical plan is therefore focused on answering key questions that will allow us to implement VST in seasonal influenza vaccine manufacturing. Specifically, we aim to (1) address whether VST can improve Sanofi Pasteur's influenza vaccine strain production in eggs (2) determine the optimal formulation for VST implementation (3) assess how VST impacts the quality of the resulting vaccine. Key results from this study will be important in Sanofi's future deliberations on whether or not to license our VST. Ultimately, we believe that VST will reduce the cost and increase the availability of vaccines globally in addition to benefiting the Canadian economy.