Vical Rolls Out RapidResponse to Accelerate Vaccine Production

Vical Incorporated (San Diego, CA, www.vical.com) has introduced a cell-free manufacturing process designed to produce large quantities of vaccine in a matter of days, compared with the several months required for conventional vaccine production. The RapidResponse DNA platform is intended to significantly reduce the time required to develop, manufacture, and deploy vaccines against emerging diseases during the early stages of an infectious outbreak. The company believes that the RapidResponse DNA platform can overcome the time, capacity, and cost challenges of manufacturing conventional vaccines, which use killed or disabled viruses grown in chicken eggs or via cell culture, requiring months of production time in large facilities. Vical has also been awarded a three-year, $6 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for further development of this manufacturing process.