'Aiea-based Hawaii Biotech said it has received a grant from the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative that could be worth up to $1 million depending on how it achieves milestones with its dengue vaccine program.

The company said the money will be used to manufacture supplies for the start of clinical trials for the vaccine. The human safety trials could begin late this year or early in 2009 depending on a number of factors, including the filing of a required application with the Food and Drug Administration.

Researchers have been looking for a vaccine for dengue, one of the most worrisome mosquito-borne illnesses worldwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are more than 100 million cases of dengue each year, with dengue hemorrhagic fever being potentially fatal if not properly treated.

Elliot Parks, Hawaii Biotech chief executive officer, said the privately held biotechnology company has been working on the vaccine for five years and, if successful, the vaccine could be used for adults. Hawaii Biotech also is developing vaccines for West Nile virus and seasonal influenza. It employs more than 30 people.

The Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative is located at the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, South Korea, and receives funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Republic of Korea.

Harold Margolis, director of the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative, called Hawaii Biotech's dengue vaccine a "promising candidate worth(y) of further development, which should lead to clinical evaluation."

"The Hawaii Biotech vaccine is the only subunit vaccine candidate against dengue that has advanced this far into pre-clinical development," Margolis said in a press statement.

"We see the Hawaii Biotech vaccine as an important part of our portfolio in vaccines in our efforts to control this global public health problem."