Public-Private Partnerships for State-of-the-Art Countermeassures

Preparing for and limiting the effects of biological weapons could not only prevent casualties but reduces the incentives for an attack. Availability of countermeasures is also critical for an effective response to a pandemic/infectious disease disaster. This session will promote the importance of partnerships between the government, academia and industry in the development of new technologies through the case study and discussion of Vaxart. Dr. Latour will discuss what it is like to run a company which makes products for the US Government and will share ideas on how Public-Private Partnerships can be structured for maximal effectiveness. Dr. Latour will also discuss Vaxart’s recent experience of developing an Ebola vaccine in a tablet form. 

Vaxart is developing oral recombinant vaccines based on its proprietary oral vaccine platform. With modular creation using standard recombinant techniques, Vaxart can create new vaccines very quickly to protect against emerging pathogens such as avian influenza or biodefense threats.