University of Michigan spin-off NanoBio has passed a major milestone, offering up an initial positive round of data from an early-stage human study of its next-generation nanoparticle flu vaccine.
The vaccine, NB-1008, hit the researchers' trifecta: Demonstrating safety and stimulating an immune response in the bloodstream as well as membranes in the nose. And as Xconomy's Luke Timmerman notes, that kind of protection on two fronts would be a novel advance over MedImmune's FluMist nasal spray vaccine.
"We did extensive testing, mice, ferrets, rabbits, so this study was a really a proof of concept for us in man," David Peralta, NanoBio's chief operating officer, tells the tech news service.
NanoBio, a 2008 Fierce 15 company, has raised an impressive $90 million to fund its development work over the years. Now Peralta says the biotech company is in conversations with potential partners which could advance the vaccine for seasonal flu in select populations--such as the elderly, who are poorly served by existing vaccines--or take the technology and use it to develop novel vaccines for new targets.
- here's the release on the presentation
- read the Xconomy story