Posted on: Friday, December 10, 2004

Hawaii Biotech vaccines funded

By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii Biotech Inc. received $15.5 million in federal grants yesterday to fund pre-clinical development of its West Nile and dengue vaccines.

The 'Aiea-based company will also use the grant money, awarded by the National Institutes of Health, to fund part of a human clinical trial for the dengue vaccine.

These grants bring the total federal funding for Hawaii Biotech's Emerging Disease/Bioterrorism program to nearly $31 million. About a dozen jobs will be created through this funding.

"Emerging diseases are dangerous and imminent threats," said David G. Watumull, president and chief executive officer of Hawaii Biotech. "These diseases can spring out of Africa or Asia and jump to the first world quickly because of global travel and we're not ready for that."

He said experts predict new strains of flu viruses will emerge in the future, ones that will most likely be more deadly than existing strains.

"We have to have solutions ready," Watumull said. "If we react to it after these diseases already hit, then we'll do so after a great deal of illness and death."

While there hasn't been any evidence of the West Nile virus in Hawai'i, the increase of virus transmissions on the West Coast could raise the likelihood of the virus coming here. The 9,862 cases of West Nile virus reported in the United States last year resulted in 264 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dengue, however, did surface in the Islands. An outbreak on Maui in late 2001 and early 2002 ignited concern about the mosquito-borne disease. During a six-month period, there were 119 cases of dengue in the state, though no deaths.

Threats of bioterrorism and emerging diseases led Hawaii Biotech to create the TRED program, designed to provide solutions to the growing problem of infectious diseases such as SARS, ebola and new flu strains.

In February, Hawaii Biotech received a $5.6 million grant to develop a drug to treat people exposed to anthrax and botulism during terrorist attacks.

Hawaii Biotech plans to create a warehouse of vaccines, pre-approved by the Federal Drug Administration, to rapidly vaccinate large numbers of people as new diseases or bioterrorism threats emerge.

Reach Catherine E. Toth at ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8103.