CARB-X announced today that it is awarding Dutch contract development and manufacturing organization Intravacc $633,000 to develop a vaccine for gonorrhea.
The money will help support early-stage development of Intravacc's meningococcal outer membrane vesical (OMV) vaccine, which carries tailored gonococcal antigens designed to prevent infections caused by the Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacterium.
Gonorrhea is the world's second most reported sexually transmitted infection, infecting roughly 82 million adults each year. Because of N gonorrhoeae's ability to quickly develop resistance to antibiotics, there is only one antibiotic (ceftriaxone) that remains effective for treating gonorrhea infections. But resistance to ceftriaxone is rising.
"Drug-resistant strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae have evaded all but one existing antibiotic (ceftriaxone)," Erin Duffy, PhD, R&D Chief of CARB-X (the Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator), said in a press release. "With an appropriate vaccination strategy, Intravacc's vaccine project, if successful, could prevent the disease, and significantly curb the spread of resistant bacteria across the globe."
The vaccine candidate is the second project to receive a grant through CARB-X's 2022-2023 funding call, and the 93rd project CARB-X has funded since 2016.
"This CARB-X project allows us to combine our science and OMV expertise for the development of a vaccine for gonorrhea infections," said Intravacc CEO Jan Groen, PhD. "We believe the outcome of this vaccine project could be an important contribution to the antimicrobial resistance epidemic."