Pentamer Pharmaceuticals Begins Crowdfunding Campaign For Ebola Vaccine Development
CHICAGO, Oct. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Pentamer Pharmaceuticals today announced that it has begun a crowdfunding campaign for the development of its Ebola vaccine. Dr. Stephen Hall, the Founder and CEO of Pentamer, developed a vaccine technology called NodaVax that has produced protective vaccines against other pathogens like Anthrax.
Pentamer developed an Ebola vaccine (called NoBola) using this technology and has begun the crowdfunding campaign to help support vaccine characterization and efficacy studies. Dr. Hall stated that Pentamer is the first company to seek crowdfunding for development of an Ebola vaccine.
He said "Traditional investors have not been enthusiastic about funding the development of a vaccine that until now has been a third-world problem. Even now that Ebola has entered other countries, the traditional investor has still not shown much interest. They are just driven too much by economic considerations. However I believe they will come around as we get closer to an Ebola vaccine.
Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital in small amounts from a large group of people using the Internet and social media. At the same time, this pooling of funds minimizes the risk on a single investment. Hall stated that "people that contribute to the development of Pentamer's Ebola vaccine can directly benefit as well as knowing that their contribution is a humanitarian act. Furthermore, I think we all need to have some skin in the game in order to beat Ebola."
He believes that with the Company's internal R & D budget along with crowdfunding support, his team can demonstrate Ebola vaccine efficacy. This would provide the proof of concept necessary for the US government to test the vaccine in non-human primate challenge trials. Hall believes that traditional investors will then step up to help fund the challenge trials and vaccine manufacturing. If not, he is confident that a second crowdfunding campaign would push the vaccine through to the public.
To access Pentamer's crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo http://www.indiegogo.com use this short link http://igg.me/at/pentamer
About Pentamer Pharmaceuticals: Pentamer Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company conducting research and developing products in the areas of vaccines, adjuvants, antibody engineering and biomaterials. For more information on Pentamer Pharmaceuticals, visit http://www.pentamerpharma.com
CONTACT: Stephen Hall, PhD., ceo@pentamerpharma.com, 888-966-4256
SOURCE Pentamer Pharmaceuticals