Advac, LLC is a start-up vaccine research company currently focused on development of a safer, more effective vaccine for human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) - common respiratory virus that can cause serious complications in infants and older adults. The leading cause of hospitalization among infants in the US, there is no FDA-approved vaccination for RSV. The firm is addressing assessmentof the safety and efficacy of two promising vaccines that would not induce enhanced respiratory disease - one using an inactivated split virusâa virus that is killed with chemicals, then split apartârather than an inactivated whole virus; the other involving vaccines containing virus-like particles (VLP), which are engineered to resemble viruses but do not contain the viral genome. The latter seems to offer protection against RSV by controlling the replication of the virus in the lungs without causing detectable enhanced respiratory disease. Also being evaluated is a unique adjuvant, a substance that enhances the bodyâs immune response to the vaccine and improves its effective
