Blue Water Vaccines Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on creating transformative vaccines solving global health challenges, has entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement for the development of a Streptococcus Pneumoniae vaccine with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital ("St. Jude"), the nation's leading hospital dedicated to understanding, treating and curing childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
The technology was developed in the laboratory of Jason Rosch, Ph.D., Department of Infectious Diseases at St. Jude.
Acute otitis media caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae remains one of the most common infectious diseases worldwide despite widespread vaccination. A major limitation of the currently licensed pneumococcal vaccines is the lack of efficacy against mucosal disease manifestations such as acute otitis media, acute bacterial sinusitis and pneumonia.
"We sought to generate a novel class of live vaccines that are fully attenuated and retain all major antigenic virulence proteins," Rosch said. "A live vaccine candidate based on deletion of the signal recognition pathway component ftsY induced potent, serotype-independent protection against otitis media, sinusitis, pneumonia and invasive pneumococcal disease." In studies, the live vaccine induced a strong serum IgG2a and IgG2b response that correlated with CD4+ T-cell mediated class switching.
We are excited to develop a vaccine that has the potential to provide a significant benefit to a great number of patients worldwide. St. Jude is a global leader in medical research and a beacon of hope for families all over the world facing serious medical conditions. We are thrilled to add this ground-breaking technology to our development portfolio."
Joseph Hernandez, Chief Executive Officer of Blue Water Vaccines
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