Maxygen, Inc., a biotechnology company based in Redwood City, CA has been awarded research grants totaling $14.4 million to continue work in developing an HIV vaccine. The majority of this new funding comes from a five-year, $11.7 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These grants are part of the NIH Small Business Innovation Research and HIV Research and Development programs. The remaining funds come via contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.

 

“We are pleased to be able to advance our work in HIV vaccine discovery with government grant and contract funding. Maxygen has demonstrated the ability to improve key attributes of experimental vaccines to make them more effective against multiple pathogen strains in laboratory studies. We hope to translate our past success in the laboratory into a much needed broadly-protective HIV vaccine,” said Maxygen CEO Russell Howard.

 

Source: Maxygen news release dated October 20, 2005 and BIOWORLD Today, October 24, 2005