Crucell unit gets EU grant for malaria vaccine

Dutch biotechnology company Crucell says that the European Union had awarded a grant to its subsidiary toward the development of a Malaria vaccine. The 1.7 million-euro ($2.2 million) award was given to a consortium of four leading groups in the field of malaria research including Etna Biotech, a fully-owned Crucell group company, which is based in Catania, Italy. The malaria vaccine will be based on Crucell's recombinant paramyxovirus technology.

Reinhard Glueck, Etna's chief executive, said "the EU grant is by no doubt an important step toward the development of a much-needed vaccine."

The family of paramyxoviruses includes common disease agents such as measles, mumps and para-influenza. Live recombinant vaccines against these diseases have greatly contributed to their reduction, especially in developed countries. The use of live recombinant viruses in vaccines thus represents a well-established method of conferring immunity against the pathogen. With the advent of reverse genetics these viruses can also be used to introduce foreign genes, encoding foreign antigens, into their recombinant genome.