Cyto Pulse Sciences, Inc. Awarded $2 Million By National Institutes of Health (NIH) For DNA Vaccine Delivery System Commercialization

GLEN BURNIE, Md., Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, has awarded a peer-reviewed follow on to a Phase II grant to Cyto Pulse Sciences, Inc. to commercialize the development of the Easy Vax DNA vaccine delivery system.

The total amount of the award is approximately $2 million for the 24-month project. This award follows a $1.8 million effort to solve a number of technical challenges in physics and biology.

The new effort is to develop a pilot manufacturing system for the device, evaluate the perceived sensation of the delivery system by humans, complete the engineering of the dengue DNA vaccine, test the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and validate the vaccine and delivery system. The goal of the complete project is to produce a safe, effective, easy-to-use, polynucleotide vaccine delivery system that can be used against biodefense pathogens. The system may also provide effective future vaccine delivery for some cancers and some diseases prevalent in the third world.

Transmitted by mosquitoes, dengue fever is a viral disease found in most tropical and subtropical areas of the world. On its websites, the CDC calls it the most important arboviral (mosquito or tick-borne) disease of humans. It is estimated that there are over 100 million cases of dengue worldwide each year.

"We are very pleased to have had our application approved to complete this important project bringing our system to commercialization," said Richard E. Walters, Cyto Pulse President and CEO.

The vaccine delivery system uses an array of hundreds of small needles, each one coated with the DNA vaccine. An electric field allows the DNA to enter immune system cells in the skin, specifically the dendritic cells involved in immune system response.

Cyto Pulse Sciences, Inc. is a biomedical device and treatment development company offering a line of medical equipment for clinical therapeutic applications. The company was founded in 1996 with the goal of developing clinical systems employing electric fields to create gene therapy and immunotherapeutic treatments unattainable by other delivery methods.

Additional information on Cyto Pulse Sciences, Inc. is available at the company's website, http://www.cytopulse.com.

Cyto Pulse Sciences, Inc.

CONTACT: Tim Hurd of Cyto Pulse Sciences, Inc., +1-410-787-1890

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