Genocea tackles next-gen pneumococcus vaccine

Xconomy's Luke Timmerman profiles the work of Genocea Biosciences, which is developing a low-cost, next-gen pneumococcus vaccine that can outperform the blockbuster Prevnar. Seattle-based PATH has been backing the development program with money from the Gates Foundation. PATH has put up $1 million for a three-year program at Genocea to find new antigens that can be used in a vaccine. Their goal is to do better than Prevnar, which works against only seven of the 80 different types of pneumococcus bacteria. And they want to do it at about $3.50 a dose so that it can be widely available in the developing world. Genocea was a 2008 Fierce 15 winner.

- read the report from Xconomy