Medicago to develop new VLP vaccine candidate for rabies

Medicago, a biotechnology company, has completed initial studies towards the development of a new VLP vaccine candidate for rabies.

The initial studies with rabies VLP vaccine demonstrated that two doses of one or four micrograms induced protective levels of neutralizing antibodies in a mouse model. The company expects to move ahead with GMP process development and a GLP toxicology study in 2012 and a Phase I clinical trial.

Medicago president and CEO Andrew Sheldon said that they see significant potential for our technologies in the development of VLP vaccines and biosimilars. “The rabies virus is a significant problem where current vaccines present challenges to access due to availability and cost, which we believe our VLP vaccine could address,” Sheldon added.