Turku, Finland – March 15, 2023 – DelSiTech Ltd, a Finnish drug delivery and drug development company, today announces that it has been awarded a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop long-acting injectable formulations ensuring the slow release of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine. This funding marks the third grant awarded from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to DelSiTech since 2018.
DelSiTech’s proprietary Silica Matrix technology provides a controlled long-acting drug release without interfering with its therapeutic functions and is compatible with small molecules, alongside large biologics. The technology also has the potential to enable parenteral delivery of complex immunogens and adjuvants as well as mRNA encoding protein immunogens.
“We would like to thank the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its continued support in funding new strategies for HIV prevention for underserved populations. In the past, traditional approaches to develop HIV vaccines have failed to result in an effective product. The recent research in this field has led to a paradigm shift to develop an HIV vaccine with novel type of immunogens stimulating B cells of the immune system, aiming generate broadly neutralizing antibodies. Based on previous animal studies, this may require complex priming including prolonged exposure to the immunogen and DelSiTech’s proprietary drug delivery technology has the potential to provide the necessary solution. Encapsulating HIV encoding mRNA using our Silica based matrix is especially exciting for us as the realization of this project will help shape a new era for vaccine development.” said Dr. Lasse Leino, CEO of DelSiTech.