Botulinum Vaccine Overview According to the NIAID fact sheet on Botulism, “the extreme toxicity of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT) and the ease of production, transport, and delivery make this an agent of extreme

According to the NIAID fact sheet on Botulism, “the extreme toxicity of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT) and the ease of production, transport, and delivery make this an agent of extreme bioterrorism concern.” Nonetheless, although there are major vaccine development initiatives ongoing, there currently is no approved Botulinum toxin vaccine available. Advances in Botulinum research have designated the optimal target for vaccine development to be the nontoxic carboxyterminal half of the toxin heavy chain (HC50). Therefore, the company is investigating our Fusion Protein Technology for development of a botulinum toxin vaccine. This involves the use of recombinant technology to express the BoNT HC50 on the virion surface of rabies virus (RV) for use as a potential vaccine. The hypothesis, supported by multiple studies with RV, is that use of the killed RV containing the HC50 as a vaccine will greatly enhance the immune responses compared to using HC50 alone.