US biotech company Orlance Inc announced on Thursday that it has received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fast Track Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to produce an Enhanced Seasonal Influenza Vaccine.

This vaccine is intended to provide better protection against the disease, even in years when predicted versus actual circulating strains are highly mismatched.

The award includes USD300,000 for Phase 1, with the total funding for the Phase 1 and 2 combined programmes worth USD3.3m. This Fast Track SBIR grant will enable the company to leverage its MACH-1 powdered vaccine and immunotherapy platform to address both seasonally-changing and highly-conserved influenza immunogens in ways not possible with other platforms.

The project aims to address the limitations of current flu vaccines by expanding the number of influenza strains that can be targeted within one vaccine, allowing vaccine production to occur closer to influenza season and achieve a better match between predicted and actual circulating strains, and by stimulating more diverse types of immune responses, both in systemic and localised cells.