Inventprise, a biotechnology firm in Redmond, Washington, has announced a program-related investment of up to $90 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the development of a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.

Made through the foundation's Strategic Investment Fund, the PRI will support development activities through completion of phase 1 and phase 2 clinical studies to assess safety and immunological proof-of-concept of IVT-25, an investigational pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Inventprise expects to advance IVT-25 into first-in-human clinical trials in the second half of 2022. As part of its agreement with the foundation, Inventprise has committed to making IVT-25 available and accessible at an affordable price to low- and middle-income countries. In addition, the company has agreed to make its proprietary linker platform available for the development of future vaccines for global health.

Pneumonia remains the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide — particularly in Africa and in other low- and middle-income countries.

"It is unacceptable that pneumonia remains the leading cause of death among children under the age of five," said Keith Klugman, Gates Foundation's Pneumonia program director. "The scientific community must strive to develop more effective vaccines to protect the most vulnerable children from more strains of this devastating disease. The Gates Foundation is proud to support this bold undertaking, which has strong potential to save the lives of millions of children in low-income settings."

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