The company said it has created a new proprietary process to develop the vaccine. Novavax expects this to help it to overcome the difficulties it has faced in producing virus-like particles (VLP) vaccine candidates for SARS.
Dr Gale Smith, vice president, vaccine development, said: "Until now, it has been difficult to produce VLP vaccine candidates against SARS and other complex infectious disease targets because many of these biological structures do not assemble efficiently.
"Our new proprietary process uses select components of SARS and other structural proteins that combine with cell membranes to form distinctive SARS coronavirus nanoparticles, which are nearly identical to the human SARS virus but lack the genetic material needed to replicate and cause disease."
The idea behind the VLP technology is that the researchers use the virus' genome to construct a structurally similar mimic. This vaccine is sufficiently similar to SARS to trigger an immune response and consequently immunize the individual against SARS.
By using artificial SARS viruses, devoid of genetic material, the VLP system avoids the risk of an individual falling ill after taking a 'live' vaccine. Novavax also believes that its VLP technology triggers a "more robust immune response" than a traditional vaccine.
Novavax has also been researching utilising its VLP technology to create vaccines effective against HIV and the H5N1 strain of influenza, which some fear could cause a pandemic.
These research programmes should benefit from the improvements to the VLP creation process which will have knock on effects for how Novavax approaches the treatment of other complex infectious diseases.
Speaking to in-PharmaTechnologist.com Tricia Richardson, senior manager for investor relations, said: "The approach offers potential to address more challenging but medically important disease targets."
In addition to this technological breakthrough Novavax has also received renewed research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This follows on from the $1.1m, three-year grant which Novavax received in 2005.
This additional funding will be used to develop and test a vaccine from the current product candidates.
Both these developments should assist Novavax in its attempts to utilise its VLP technology to tackle SARS, which caused 774 deaths in 2003.
