Bharat Biotech, University of Sydney, ExcellGene SA - Broadly Protective Coronavirus Vaccine

OSLO, Norway/ HYDERABAD, India/ SYDNEY, Australia/ MONTHEY, Switzerland; 10 May 2022: The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) today announces the latest award under its $200m programme to advance the development of vaccines that provide broad protection against SARS-Cov-2 variants and other betacoronaviruses [1]. CEPI will provide funding of up to US$19.3 million to support the development of a 'Äòvariant-proof' SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate to an international multidisciplinary consortium comprising Bharat Biotech International Ltd (BBIL), India, the University of Sydney, Australia and ExcellGene SA, Switzerland. CEPI's funding will support the consortium as it seeks to establish preclinical and clinical proof of concept for an adjuvanted subunit vaccine designed to provide broad protection against all known SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, as well as future variants of the virus which have not yet emerged. CEPI will fund the researchers to conduct activities including immunogen design, preclinical studies, manufacturing process development and a Phase 1 clinical trial. In this new vaccine design, modified trimeric spike immunogens will be produced in a robust and scalable process with high purity and yield at low cost, based on a biomanufacturing approach that has provided significant quantities of protein therapeutics to the world. This strategy could also be used to enable rapid development of broadly protective vaccines against other betacoronaviruses, as well as vaccines against Disease X'Äîunknown pathogens with pandemic potential that emerge in the future. Enabling equitable access CEPI is committed to the principle of equitable access to the vaccines it funds. Under the terms of the funding agreement, the consortium partners have committed to achieving equitable access to the outputs of this project, in line with CEPI's Equitable Access Policy.