Nanotechnology company Liquidia Technologies has secured an extension on a collaborative agreement with global nonprofit PATH as the partners continue development of a “next generation” pneumonia vaccine.

The extension allows preclinical work to continue on a vaccine that would be accessible to more people around the world. The World Health Organization estimates that pneumonia kills about 1.4 million children younger than age 5 each year.

Research Triangle Park-based Liquidia has developed a proprietary technology that can manufacture a nanoparticle of particular size and shape. Controlling those characteristics results in a particle optimized for delivery to the cells of the human body. The partnership with PATH aims to use Liquidia’s technology to develop a new pneumonia vaccine that offers a broader spectrum of coverage and can be manufactured more affordably, important considerations for a product targeting the developing world.

Liquidia, which has already licensed its technology to GlaxoSmithKline for applications in vaccines, is also working on plans to spin out a separate company focused on ophthalmic applications. The company announced the spinoff plans earlier this month, just prior to presenting preclinical data on its ophthalmic research at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, or ARVO.