Karolinska Institutet to Test Vical's Vaxfectin(R) Adjuvant With Preventive Vaccine against HIV Under Sponsorship of Swedish Institute for Infectious Disea...( SAN DIEGO Aug. 19 /- Vical Incorp...),Health

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Vical Incorporated (Nasdaq: VICL) today announced a research collaboration with the Karolinska Institutet (KI), a leading European medical university, and the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI), a governmental expert agency, to evaluate Vical's Vaxfectin(R) adjuvant with the Biojector(R) 2000 needle-free injection system (Bioject Medical Technologies Inc., OTCBB: BJCT) for a multivalent preventive DNA vaccine against HIV.

Professor Eric Sandstrom, M.D., Ph.D., Professor at the Karolinska Institutet, said, "The results from our initial Phase 1 trial were quite good, with over 90 percent of subjects achieving detectable immune responses against HIV after the prime-boost vaccination. We hope to improve the breadth and magnitude of immune responses in the next clinical trial by using the Vaxfectin(R) adjuvant with our DNA priming vaccine. We believe that continued development of HIV vaccines remains among the world's top healthcare priorities."

The Karolinska Institutet has completed a 38-subject Phase 1 trial testing a prime-boost HIV vaccine regimen using three doses of unadjuvanted DNA vaccines over a three-month period followed by a single dose of a viral vector vaccine at nine months. The Karolinska Institutet is currently conducting nonclinical safety studies to support a planned Phase 1 trial of a Vaxfectin(R)-formulated HIV DNA vaccine as part of a prime-boost regimen. The Vaxfectin(R) adjuvant is intended to optimize the priming of immune responses and increase the performance of, or potentially even eliminate the need for, the viral vector vaccine boost. The SMI is sponsoring the development.

About the Vaccine

The SMI/KI vaccines contain syn
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