Emergex to collaborate with Bio-Manguinhos on new COVID-19 vaccine
pharmafile | January 5, 2021 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | COVID-19, Vaccine
Emergex, a company focusing on the development of medicines against viral and bacterial infectious diseases, has announced a collaboration and development agreement with the Institute of Technology on Immunobiologicals (Bio-Manguinhos), part of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Brazil, to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
Under the agreement, both parties will work together to develop certain immunotherapeutic programmes, including a vaccine candidate for COVID-19, through a regulatory pathway for Brazil’s national health service.
UK-based Emergex will also support the performance of studies, including clinical trials, and to manufacture, market, promote, and distribute certain infectious diseases vaccines within the national health service of Brazil.
The company has already completed preclinical development work including toxicology and immunoproteomic research into the MHC Class I peptide expression library for cell surface expressed peptides on SARS-Cov-2 infected cells, which define the repertoire of an effective T-Cell immune response to the COVID-19 disease.
Both parties will share initial set up and development costs, but further financial details have not been disclosed.
Sotiris Missailidis, Deputy Director of Technological Development at Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz, said: “Given the geographical scale and logistical difficulties that underlie distributing a vaccine across Brazil, Emergex’s expertise and technology could play a vital role in overcoming such challenges, including the potential to allow for mass rollout of a vaccine for COVID-19.
“Emergex vaccines are 100% synthetic, requiring no biology for manufacturing, making rapid scale-up and production possible. Furthermore, delivery through a microneedle system on a single patch, make them easy to administer, requiring less clinical intervention, and allowing for wider public adoption. We look forward to working with Emergex on this and other co-development projects to bring safe and affordable vaccines to the Brazilian public market.”
Darcy Jimenez
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