Daktari Biotechnology - Innovation-Focused Volume 1, May 2024

Innovation in Action I: How Daktari Biotechnology is
Transforming HIV Treatment
The innovation of long-acting antiretroviral therapy (ART) developed by Daktari Biotechnology cofounder
Prof. Benson Edagwa and his colleagues’ is set to be a game-changer in the management of
HIV in Kenya and potentially across Africa. This form of treatment, involving just one or two doses a
year, addresses one of the biggest challenges in HIV care: medication adherence. The convenience of
fewer doses reduces the daily burden on individuals living with HIV, thereby increasing the likelihood
of maintaining consistent drug levels and achieving viral suppression while also reducing drug
toxicity that results from the current HIV medications that require frequent dosing to achieve
efficacy. This leap forward in treatment simplifies the lives of patients, improves clinical outcomes,
and can potentially reduce the costs associated with more frequent dosing. Daktari Biotechnology’s
initiative is an example of how local innovation is tailoring healthcare solutions to meet the specific
needs and challenges of African populations.
Innovation in Action II: Daktari Biotechnology Transforming Infectious
Diseases Animal Treatment with Virus-Like Particles (VLPs) Vaccines.
Controlling diseases through vaccination is considered one of the most effective ways to control
pathogens and prevent diseases in humans as well as in the veterinary field. Classical traditional
vaccines against animal viral diseases are based on inactivated or attenuated viruses, but new subunit
and virus-like particles vaccines developed using baculovirus expression system are gaining attention
from researchers in animal vaccine space. Virus-like particles (VLPs) produced using the baculovirus
expression technology represent one of the most appealing approaches opening interesting frontiers
in animal vaccines. VLPs are robust protein scaffolds exhibiting well-defined geometry and uniformity
that mimic the overall structure of the native virions but lack the viral genome. VLPs can stimulate
strong humoral and cellular immune responses and have been shown to exhibit self-adjuvanting
abilities. Two preventive vaccines developed in baculovirus against the classical swine fever virus and
three preventive vaccines against porcine circovirus type 2 are currently commercially available.
Unlike the traditional inactivated or attenuated viruses’ vaccines, in terms of safety, the fact that VLPs
lack any viral nucleic acid completely abolishes any of the risks associated with virus replication,
insertion, reversion, recombination or reassortment processes. Therefore, this removes safety issues
associated with whole-virus vaccine production and administration, relating to virus escape from
production facilities, emergence of reversion mutants or effects in immunocompromised individuals.
Daktari Biotechnology is developing several veterinary vaccines using its new Baculovirus Expression
Vector system. A prototype protein subunit Foot and Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) virus particles
vaccine and several others have been designed in this new system. The goal is to work closely with
Kemp Biosciences by applying the many years of experience in protein expression that Dr. Chris Kemp
the founder of Kemp Biosciences (Dr. Chris Kemp is a member of DKTB’s founding Board of Directors)
brings to support the success of DKTB protein therapeutics and vaccine development programs.
By Joan Cheboswony M.P.H., M.Ed., P.G.D.E.