Melville, NY – June 1, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Congressman Steve Israel (D-Huntington) announced a nearly $100,000 investment for Codagenix, Inc., a biotechnology start up located in Stony Brook, NY. The $99,811.00 federal grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) will provide Codagenix with the resources they need to develop a Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) vaccine, an infectious disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals.
In 2012, 10 outbreaks of FMDV caused approximately $1.5 billion in economic losses. Without a vaccine, an outbreak of FMDV could have a dramatic impact on the United States agricultural economy, including the milk and meat industry.
“This federal funding is an important investment to the already robust medical research community on Long island,” said Rep. Israel. “I applaud the USDA for empowering small businesses like Codagenix to develop their innovative research into vaccines that will ensure a healthy agricultural economy.”
“We have found the Achilles heel of every virus and are commercializing a platform for vaccine development,” said Chief Executive Officer J. Robert Coleman, Codagenix, Inc.
“Our platform is not a back-bone virus or a virus like-particle, but rather is a software-based approach to re-design the genomes of targeted viruses,” added Chief Scientific Officer Steffen Mueller, Codagenix, Inc.
This project seeks to further develop a live-attenuated Foot-and-Mouth-Disease Virus (FMDV) vaccine candidate in collaboration with the USDA-Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC). Codagenix focuses on developing a rapid and unique method for making vaccines for a range of medically important human diseases. So far, Codagenix has raised $1.8M in funding from the National Institutes of Health to support their vaccines, which includes but is not limited to the Influenza virus, and the bacterial pathogen E. Coli. “These “re-coded” viruses are then synthesized from scratch and have been shown to be highly effective vaccine candidates.
The USDA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a highly competitive program that encourages domestic small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) that has the potential for commercialization. Through a competitive awards-based program, SBIR enables small businesses to explore their technological potential and provides the incentive to profit from its commercialization.
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