AAHI Receives $18M NIH Award to Develop Chikungunya RNA Vaccine

The Access to Advanced Health Institute (AAHI) has received an $18 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a temperature stable, single-dose vaccine candidate for the chikungunya virus. The vaccine uses RNA platform technology to protect against the virus, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Asia, Africa, and Latin America for which no vaccine exists.

AAHI’s approach to an RNA vaccine against chikungunya is distinctly different from the RNA vaccines which are currently approved by the FDA to prevent other diseases. Unlike other RNA vaccines, this candidate will generate a live “attenuated” virus that could potentially induce strong and long-lasting immune protection against this mosquito-borne disease. The award from NIH will support development, preclinical testing and human clinical evaluation of a vaccine that meets an increasingly urgent need for a reliable, abundant supply.

AAHI’s RNA vaccine technology does not require the complex manufacturing techniques associated with traditional live-attenuated vaccines or deep cold-chain storage. It accomplishes this by binding RNA to the exterior of a proprietary nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) delivery vehicle, which protects the RNA and safely and efficiently delivers it to cells. Researchers at AAHI will develop a dried (lyophilized), live-attenuated RNA vaccine candidate that delivers the full-length RNA genome of a weakened version of the Chikungunya virus complexed to the NLC, in a vaccine formulation expected to be stable at ambient temperatures for several months and in the refrigerator for at least a year.

“This project will demonstrate the use of RNA vaccine technology to avoid some of the classic manufacturing challenges in the large-scale manufacture of live-attenuated vaccines,” said Emily Voigt, principal scientist, AAHI RNA Platform Lead, and co-Principal Investigator for the award. “Additionally, our RNA vaccine platform uses standard manufacturing equipment and techniques employed by vaccine manufacturers worldwide that are easy to tech transfer and scale, unlike current mRNA vaccine technology. We hope that these advances will ultimately increase availability and access to highly effective vaccines. This is the first attempt, to the best of our knowledge, to advance an RNA-launched live- attenuated vaccine candidate to the clinic.”