Feb 03 2020: CEPI and GSK announced a new collaboration aimed at helping the global effort to develop a vaccine for the 2019-nCoV virus.
For this GSK will make its established pandemic vaccine adjuvant platform technology available in order to enhance the development of an effective vaccine against 2019-nCoV.An adjuvant is added to some vaccines to improve the immune response, thus creating a stronger and longer lasting immunity against infections than the vaccine alone.
The use of an adjuvant is of exacting importance in a epidemic situation since it can reduce the amount of antigen required per dose, allowing more vaccine doses to be produced and made available to more people.
CEPI will harmonize engagements between GSK and entities funded by the CEPI who are interested in testing their vaccine platform with the GSK’s adjuvant technology to develop efficient vaccines against 2019-nCoV.
The first agreement to formalize this preparation has been signed between the GSK and University of Queensland, Australia, which then entered a partnering agreement with the CEPI in January 2019 in order to develop a “molecular clamp” vaccine platform, intended to enable targeted and rapid vaccine production against multiple viral pathogens.
CEPI has extended this funding to work on a 2019-nCoV virus vaccine candidate, and contact to the GSK adjuvant technology will nowadays support this early-stage research.
“This announcement harmonizes 4 prior CEPI programmes of the work relating to 2019-nCoV vaccine development already announced by CEPI, in partnership with CureVac; Inovio; The University of Queensland; and Moderna, Inc. and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases”.
These partnerships seek in order to improve the scientific understanding of the novel coronavirus and to develop vaccines against it. These programmes will influence rapid response platforms already supported by the CEPI with the aim of advancing 2019-nCoV vaccine candidates into clinical testing as quickly as possible.
In addition, CEPI launched a new call for the proposals to rapidly develop and manufacture previously proven vaccine technology that can be used against the new coronavirus. The call is progressing and open until February.
Both CEPI and GSK are dedicated to principles of equitable access and will work together in this collaboration in order to ensure that this principle governs the development, use and access of any 2019-nCoV vaccine developed through the collaboration.
Coronavirus
Coronaviruses are the family of viruses that can lead to respiratory illness, including Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).
https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/press-releases/cepi-and-gsk-announce-collaboration-to-strengthen-the-global-effort-to-develop-a-vaccine-for-the-2019-ncov-virus/
