Universal Influenza

Despite over 70 years of vaccine development, influenza remains a persistent global challenge for public health authorities. The 2017-18 season was particularly severe with approximately 900,000 influenza-associated hospitalizations and 80,000 influenza-associated deaths in the US. On a global scale, the WHO estimates that seasonal influenza is responsible for 3-5 million cases of severe disease and up to 500,000 deaths each year.

Although many potential approaches to developing a universal influenza vaccine have been explored, to-date none have achieved major clinical success. NTI’s next-generation HydroVax technology represents a radical new approach to vaccine development in which site-directed oxidation-based inactivation of intact virus particles is used to prepare heat-stable vaccine formulations that are structurally identical to native live virus and induce long-lived protective immune responses. Our hypothesis is that the use of structurally intact HA and NA vaccine antigens achieved through our advanced vaccine technology will provide broad and durable antiviral immunity.