iQur Leads Major European Project to Develop a Universal Influenza Virus Vaccine

iQur, a UK biotechnology company, announced that it has been granted €5 million ($6.6 million) by the European Union Framework 7 fund to develop a universal influenza vaccine based on its proprietary tandem core technology.

iQur will lead a consortium of world-leading scientists from six sites across Europe, which have the complimentary skills and experience to discover and develop a novel flu vaccine. iQur’s technology will enable the design of a vaccine for influenza with the potential to confer long-term protection, removing the need for annual vaccination, the company reports. In addition, iQur’s vaccine can be made using recombinant protein technology and should be more effective and cheaper to manufacture than conventional vaccines, the company says.

The consortium partners include Leeds University and University College London from the UK, CRP Santé from Luxemburg, the Latvijas Medicinal Centre from Latvia, 3P Pharmaceuticals and Institut Catala de la Salut, both from Spain. The consortium will develop an optimal vaccine using preclinical models, manufacture the product to GMP and finally carry out a Phase I clinical trial. It is anticipated that the project will reach completion in 2017.

Source: iQur