Calbiotech Awarded Contract to Develop Reagents for Dengue Diagnosis

A Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I contract by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material command has been awarded to Calbiotech (Spring Valley, CA; USA), which will develop analyte specific reagents (ASRs) for the diagnosis of Dengue virus.

Technology developed under this project will enable an affordable FDA approved method for diagnosing Dengue fever in blood/sera. This will enable medical personnel to adequately diagnosis and react to Dengue fever outbreaks.

Dengue virus is a mosquito born species of Flavivirus that represents a major threat to military forces deployed to tropical areas of the world. Due to its worldwide distribution, US military and civilian personnel deployed overseas are at high risk of being infected. The global prevalence of Dengue has grown dramatically in recent decades, spreading from 9 to some 40 countries. The disease is now endemic in more than 100 countries in Africa, the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia, and the Western Pacific. Not only is the number of cases increasing as the disease is spreading to new areas, but explosive outbreaks are occurring. In 2007, Venezuela reported over 80,000 cases.

This Phase I award will allow Calbiotech to compete for $730,000 in Phase II funding. A Phase II project would expand the work to develop ASRs for Rift Valley fever, Sand Fly fever-Toscana, Crimean-Congo fever, Central European Tick-borne encephalitis, and Chikungunya virus in blood/sera from clinically ill patients.

Calbiotech provides preclinical and research testing services for testing human and animal samples using the Calbiotech Immunoassay menu. Calbiotech is FDA registered and ISO 13485:2003 certified facility. The company has adopted operating polices based on FDA Quality system (QS), current Good manufacturing Practices (cGMP), Good laboratory Practices (GLP) and ISO requirements, EU directive and Canadian medical devices regulations.

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