The Oxford company of an Indian-born professor announced Tuesday that its Indian partner, the Serum Institute of India (SIIPL), has started trials of a new virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine targeting Covid-19 that has the potential to offer a revolutionary new approach to combat the pandemic. Professor Sumi Biswas, CEO and co-founder of SpyBiotech, an Oxford University spin-off with a novel vaccine platform to fight infectious diseases, cancer and chronic diseases, said the first subjects were dosed in a trial of phase I / II. SpyBiotech said it has signed an exclusive global license agreement with SIIPL for the development of the vaccine as part of the study started in Australia.
Combining SpyBiotech’s unique platform technology with Serum’s vast experience in VLP development and manufacturing capabilities is an exciting development at a critical time, giving us the tools to produce the large volume of doses needed to support the fight. global against Covid-19, said Biswas, a Calcutta-born immunologist. For SpyBiotech, this is an opportunity to provide an accelerated test point for our platform technology, along with the other candidates we are moving into clinical development. Our technology can be combined with multiple vaccine delivery platforms to create a plug-in and display vaccine that is critical to generating vaccines quickly and safely, he said.
Biswas moved to the UK in 2005 after having studied microbiology at the University of Bangalore and then became an associate professor of vaccination at the Jenner Institute, the University of Oxford’s leading vaccine innovation center that is currently also working on another Covid-19 vaccine candidate. SpyBiotech says its vaccine candidate uses its proprietary SpyCatcher / SpyTag protein superglue technology to display coronavirus spike protein on the surface of Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) VLPs, a licensed vaccine with “excellent safety and immunogenicity data “in humans and currently manufactured in billions of doses. The receptor-binding domain of the coronavirus spike protein is displayed in the VLP, taking advantage of the properties of the platform to induce a potent immune response.
Adar Poonawalla, CEO of SIIPL, said: We are very excited about the collaboration with SpyBiotech to work on this new vaccine for Covid-19. This new technology has the potential to be a powerful new approach to dealing with the pandemic. SIIPL looks forward to working with SpyBiotech to promote this candidate through clinical development.
SpyCatcher / SpyTag is a platform technology that allows antigens to be displayed on VLPs with a covalent and irreversible bond in a very stable and efficient way with a high density and specific epitope / orientation presentation. The technology can be used for an exceptionally wide range of applications in vaccine development and has established proof-of-concept data in viral, bacterial, parasitic, chronic diseases and cancer. SpyBiotech said it has exclusive rights from the University of Oxford to apply, commercialize and sub-license plug and display technology for vaccine development. Finding a safe and effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 [Covid-19] The virus is one of the most pressing scientific challenges of our time, said Lachlan Mackinnon, director of innovation at Oxford Sciences and president of SpyBiotech.
Combining the benefits of SpyBiotech’s protein superglue technology with the known safety and immunogenicity of the Serum Institute’s Hepatitis B surface antigen virus-like particle offers the potential for an effective and safe COVID-19 vaccine that it could be made to scale, he said. Through the latest agreement, he said that SpyBiotech’s technology can be added to a growing arsenal of weapons that are being developed against this disease.
We hope that the development program will also help validate the broader potential of the technology, which in the future will be used to attack other infectious diseases and cancer, he added. SpyBiotech emerged from the University of Oxford in 2017 and its proprietary protein superglue technology binds antigens to vaccine delivery platforms in a way that minimizes the risk of administration and improves immunogenicity and efficacy.
The company said it is backed by high-quality investors, including Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), the Oxford University equity investor, and GV (formerly Google Ventures) and has raised £ 15m in funding to date. date.
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