Sanaria Wins ViE's "Best Prophylactic Vaccine" 2014
Sanaria announced that it has received the Vaccine Industry Excellence Award for the "Best Prophylactic Vaccine" in Washington DC during the 14th World Vaccine Congress. The award was bestowed on Sanaria PfSPZ Vaccine, which demonstrated complete protection against malaria in volunteers.
Vaccines manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Sanofi Pasteur were among the six top finalists competing with Sanaria. The company’s vaccine was able to completely protect all six volunteers who received high dose immunizations in a trial conducted at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH.
Stephen Hoffman, President and founder of Sanaria, said, “We are extremely honored by this award, which represents the recognition of our industry peers.” Hoffman was also among the six finalists for this year’s ViE “Best Biotech CEO” award. Ogobara Doumbo, Director of the Malaria Research and Training Centre of the University of Bamako in Mali, said, “This announcement is a great boost for our staff and volunteers, collaborating with LMIV, NIAID, and Sanaria to test the PfSPZ Vaccine in the field here in Mali. The months ahead are going to be very exciting for us, and hopefully for everyone working in malaria.”
The company has pioneered the manufacture, storage, shipping, and administration of Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite stage malaria parasites for use as vaccines. With collaboration partners in the US and Europe as well as Africa, Sanaria said it is optimizing vaccine dosage regimens and performance characteristics of the vaccine. It is also building operational systems for mass administration of PfSPZ Vaccine for malaria elimination campaigns.
Salim AbdullaDirector of the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania, said, “This industry recognition communicates to all of our colleagues in Tanzania why we and our colleagues and supporters at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute have committed so much of our resources and time to assessing PfSPZ Vaccine, and our vision to use it as a tool to eliminate P. falciparum malaria.” Ifakara Health Institute is the site of an upcoming trial of PfSPZ Vaccine and the first organization in Africa to conduct clinical trials of a PfSPZ product.
The Vaccine Industry Excellence Awards acknowledge outstanding achievements from the global vaccine industry. The judging panel for the award is comprised of experts from pharmaceutical and biotech industries, NGOs, and research institutions among others.