Seattle-area startup Inventprise gets backing from Gates Foundation for pneumonia shot
Summary
Inventprise has been slowly growing in Redmond, Wash., expanding into four research and manufacturing facilities to support early development of a host of vaccines since its founding in 2012. The company is now set to advance an investigational vaccine for pediatric pneumococcal disease into human testing with new funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The key is a “linker” molecule that connects the components and increases their visibility to the immune system, enabling a strong protective response. The linker was developed in-house after the company’s founding by Kapre, a former executive at the Serum Institute of India, a large vaccine manufacturer. “The scientific community must strive to develop more effective vaccines to protect the most vulnerable children from more strains of this devastating disease,” said Keith Klugman, director of the foundation’s pneumonia program, in a press release.