In collaboration with the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC), and with additional research support from the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), GenVec is developing multi-antigen vaccine candidates, produced using GenVec's proprietary 293-ORF6 cell line, designed to attack both the blood and liver stages of malaria, a complex parasitic disease. The intention is to generate a broad spectrum of immune responses including neutralizing antibodies and cytolytic T cell immunity, characteristic of the most effective vaccines. This approach toward eliciting a broad spectrum immune response and attacking multiple stages of the life cycle has shown promise in pre-clinical animal models.

In January 2007, the NMRC initiated Phase I testing of a vaccine candidate jointly developed with GenVec at its clinical trials center. The first phase of this study is designed to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of two doses of the vaccine candidate in healthy volunteers.  After safety evaluation and confirmation of the optimal dose, the second (challenge) phase of the study will evaluate the protective effects of the vaccine following exposure to malaria.  The ability to safety challenge human volunteers provides a unique opportunity for assessing the efficacy of candidate vaccines prior to the initiation of field trials.