The Cambridge-based biotech firm has been awarded a US government grant in order to develop a vaccine against the West Nile virus. The disease hit the headlines last summer as the city of New York was hit by an outbreak which infected one in 40 people and killed seven. There are fears that there could be another outbreak this summer after infected birds and mosquitoes were detected over a wide area. The government award provides $263,000 in the first eight months and $2.7m for the following two years. Peptide will use its proprietary ChimeriVax(TM) technology to insert the genes of the West Nile virus into an 'envelope' of the yellow fever vaccine.
