Overview

AlphaVax is developing a novel vaccine technology with broad applications against infectious disease, cancer and biodefense threats which has the potential to redefine vaccines and the role they play in medicine. The vaccine market is primed for dramatic growth, and the AlphaVax vaccine technology will play a key role in an expanding industry expected to reach $20 billion by 2015.

AlphaVax uses a specialized viral vector system to make alphavirus replicon vaccines called alphavaccines, which have shown excellent protection in multiple models for infectious disease and cancer. Since 1998, the company has raised more than $154 million, with ~75% coming from corporate partner and grant funding. This support has enabled us to advance the alphavaccine platform system from the academic laboratory to multiple human clinical trials, establishing the technical, regulatory, and manufacturing foundation for commercializing alphavaccines. AlphaVax is the first company to advance an alphavirus-vectored vaccine to the clinical stage of development.

The AlphaVax in-house product pipeline includes products for Herpes Simplex virus (HSV) and respiratory diseases in the elderly and young, including influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). Through partnered programs with Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics and Progenics Pharmaceuticals, cytomegalovirus (CMV) and prostate cancer vaccines respectively based on the alphavaccine platform are being developed. In collaboration with government and university researchers, AlphaVax leads or participates in grant-funded programs to develop HIV, colon and breast cancer, and several biodefense vaccines.

Clinical data from the first alphavaccine human trials have established excellent safety and immunological activity in man. These immune responses are characterized as robust and balanced antibody (B-cell) and cellular (T-cell) immune responses, confirming the promising data that has been obtained in over a decade of intensive pre-clinical work with this vector platform.

We employ a staff of ~78 who are located in 3 facilities. The Company headquarters, located in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina is a state-of-the-art, 30,000-square-foot research facility that includes our Discovery and Research functions. A second facility also located in RTP at Meridian Parkway houses a 10,000-square-foot Development facility. We also lease and operate a GMP vaccine manufacturing facility in Lenoir, North Carolina that supplies internal and partner phase I and Phase II clinical trial material.

Our technical capabilities encompass vector design and development, new product research, product and process development, formulation, GMP manufacturing and technology transfer, quality assurance, regulatory and clinical affairs.

AlphaVax began operations in 1998, is privately owned, and has been financed to date by a combination of grant funding, corporate partnership income, and private equity. Read more about our financial profile.

Some of our key milestones and accomplishments include:
  • A sound clinical safety and regulatory profile
  • Phase 1 Trials completed for Influenza, CMV and HIV with positive results
  • Phase 1/2 Trials for colon cancer and a partnered prostate cancer product ongoing
  • Established process and product development expertise
  • In-house GMP clinical trial manufacturing capability
  • Industry partnerships in CMV and cancer
  • Academic partnerships in tumor immunotherapy
  • A robust product pipeline spanning multiple infectious disease and cancer applications
  • Peer-reviewed grant funding over $80 million
  • Private equity and corporate investment over $73 million
  • An extensive flow of new scientific improvements and proprietary know-how
  • An experienced management team