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Promising Shigella Vaccine Licensed to Non-Profit

By Pritzker | Ruohonen

A promising Shigella vaccine developed at the University of Maryland in Baltimore could make its way into developing nations to treat sick children now that it has been licensed to a non-profit group funded in part by Bill and Melinda Gates.

The deal was announced in a press release Monday by the university's School of Medicine Center for Vaccine Development. The plan is that the non-profit group, PATH, or Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, will finish clinical trials and find a pharmaceutical company to partner on the pediatric vaccine.

The World Health Organization estimates that 1.1 million people a year die of Shigella infections around the globe and that more than 60 percent of the deaths are in children under five years old. In developing nations, Shigellosis is a major cause of diarrhea and dysentary.

Among travelers and military personnel, Shigella causes an estimated 580,000 cases of illness per year, according to the press release.

The Shigella project fits with PATH's commitment to accelerate development of safe, affordable vaccines to be used against leading bacterial causes of diarrheal disease and making them available to children in the world's poorest countries.

The licensing deal announced Monday comes at a time when treatment of Shigella infections are in a state of crisis because the bacteria is growing resistant to antibiotics.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on November 24, 2008 (boomark / email).