Replicate Bioscience wins $3M Gates Foundation grant for TB vaccine
What's the deal? Replicate Bioscience has won a $3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to speed up development of a tuberculosis vaccine.
The San Diego clinical-stage company will use its self-replicating RNA (srRNA) technology, which aims to trigger immune responses at lower doses than traditional methods.
It is the third Gates Foundation grant for Replicate. "We are thrilled to receive this third grant from the Gates Foundation, which will enable us to accelerate development of our TB vaccine candidates," said chief executive officer Nathaniel Wang.
Why now? Tuberculosis is the leading infectious cause of death globally, killing over a million people each year.
The century-old Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine offers limited protection against pulmonary TB in adolescents and adults — the groups that drive most transmission.
Rising multidrug-resistant strains add urgency. The World Health Organization has named TB a priority disease under its End TB strategy.
What could go wrong? Replicate's srRNA platform remains clinical-stage and unproven for TB.
Its most advanced candidate, the RBI-4000 rabies vaccine, has shown effective immunity at low doses, but that early data does not guarantee success against a far more complex bacterial target.
The signal: The grant deepens an existing relationship — Replicate's third from the Gates Foundation — and points to the foundation's strategy of using non-profit capital to push next-generation RNA platforms towards diseases that hit low- and middle-income regions hardest. For Replicate, now at breakout stage, the funding extends an srRNA pipeline that already spans rabies, HIV, and malaria into one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases.
Read more: third-news.com
