A new vaccine against influenza to be taken by nasal spray

Green Hills Biotechnology is developing a novel vaccine against influenza in a joint project that brings together the expertise of eight different partner institutions both from academia and biotech industry in four European countries and in Russia. The ambitious project is being carried out by the international consortium over a five-year period. The FLUVACC vaccine is a novel component of European systemic efforts to prevent and control influenza, based on a replication deficient virus that is generated by a specialised technique called reverse genetics. The vaccine will be produced in cell culture.
http://www.ist-world.org/ProjectDetails.aspx?ProjectId=4f488cc192d84a49b6c1ef80e9305931

A new drug to fight Tuberculosis

New Medicines for Tuberculosis (NM4TB) aims to develop successfully new drugs for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) through an integrated approach implemented by a team, which combines some of Europe's leading academic TB researchers with a major pharmaceutical company and three SMEs, all with a strong commitment to discovering new anti-infective agents. NM4TB has a comprehensive portfolio of potential and validated targets plus several novel proprietary anti-TB agents in its drug development pipeline. Among the validated targets are several enzymes involved in highly druggable areas such as cell wall biogenesis, nucleic acid synthesis and central metabolic pathways for which assays amenable to high-throughput screening are available. Intensive efforts will focus on rapidly emerging targets that impact upon two, as yet, untouched areas of the physiology of M. tuberculosis signal transduction pathways and persistence.
http://www.nm4tb.org/

Stopping HIV infection

In view of the increasing numbers of new HIV infections each year, particularly in the developing world, there is an urgent need for additional measures to prevent the transmission of HIV infection. This project aims to develop new microbicide compounds to prevent HIV infection using technologies such as nanobodies, anticalins, peptide libraries and glyconanoparticles in addition to more traditional approaches. Following a rigorous selection procedure, the most promising candidates will be tested in a phase I clinical trial.
http://www.empro.org.uk/

Emerging viruses: the power of science in accelerating anticipation and preparedness

The VIZIER project aims to impact the antiviral drug-design field through the identification of potential new drug targets against RNA viruses and their use in a comprehensive structural characterisation of a diverse set of viruses. The common strategies used for the development of antiviral drugs are mainly based on the knowledge accumulated through studies of virus genetics and structure. The VIZIER project proposes to fill the existing gap between the necessary scientific characterisation of emerging viruses and preclinical drug evaluation.
http://www.vizier-europe.org/