COVID-19: Global collaboration to develop coronavirus vaccine

CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and global pharma giant GSK have a new collaboration aimed at helping the global effort to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. CEPI, is also working with CureVac, Inovio, Moderna, and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. It will take time, however.

GSK will make its established pandemic vaccine adjuvant platform technology available to enhance the development of an effective vaccine against COVID-19.

GSK is a leader in the development of innovative vaccines using different adjuvant systems. An adjuvant is added to some vaccines to enhance the immune response, thereby creating a stronger and longer-lasting immunity against infections than the vaccine alone. The use of an adjuvant is of particular importance in a pandemic 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.

Coupling GSK’s adjuvant systems with the pioneering platform technology CEPO is funding has the potential to make more vaccine available more rapidly, by decreasing the dose of vaccine antigen required to protect each individual. This antigen-sparing effect makes a given supply of vaccine go farther, increasing the number of people who can benefit.

CEPI will coordinate engagements between GSK and entities funded by CEPI who are interested in testing their vaccine platform with GSK’s adjuvant technology to develop effective vaccines against 2019-nCoV. The first agreement to formalise this arrangement has been signed between GSK and the University of Queensland, Australia, which has a partnering agreement with CEPI to develop a molecular clamp vaccine platform, intended to enable targeted and rapid vaccine production against multiple viral pathogens.

The research team at The University of Queensland are progressing a 2019-nCoV vaccine programme and the availability of the GSK adjuvant will enable it to carry out important pre-clinical experiments designed to assess vaccine effectiveness.

CEPI, is also working with CureVac, Inovio, Moderna, and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. These partnerships seek to improve the scientific understanding of the novel coronavirus and to develop vaccines against it. These programmes will leverage rapid response platforms already supported by CEPI with the aim of advancing 2019-nCoV vaccine candidates into clinical testing as quickly as possible.

CEPI seeks additional partners to rapidly develop and manufacture already proven vaccine technology that can be used against the new coronavirus.

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can lead to respiratory illness, including Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). Coronaviruses are transmitted between animals and people and can evolve into strains not previously identified in humans. On January 7, 2020, a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was identified as the cause of pneumonia cases in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China, and additional cases have since then been found in a number of countries, which so far can all be traced back to Wuhan City, China.