Bavarian Nordic has entered into an exclusive head of terms agreement to license AdaptVac’s proprietary capsid virus like particle (VLP)-based SARS-CoV-2 subunit vaccine technology, which has the potential to mimic the virus to the body’s immune system, giving the optimal stimulus to generate a fast, long-lasting immune response that offers a highly efficacious protection. Importantly, the production of the vaccine technology can be readily scaled to commercial quantities and AdaptVac is working with AGC Biologics for the manufacture and scale-up of the vaccine.
“Critically, Bavarian Nordic’s support ensures the vaccine can reach vulnerable populations in the shortest possible timeline.”
AdaptVac, a joint venture established by ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies and NextGen Vaccines spun out of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, is a member of the international PREVENT-nCoV consortium that includes several European universities and earlier this year received an EU Horizon grant to rapidly advance AdaptVac’s vaccine candidate against COVID-19 into the clinic. The members of the consortium hold preclinical and clinically validated experience from working with similar coronaviruses such as MERS and SARS, as well as malaria vaccines, using AdaptVac’s capsid VLP technology and ExpreS2ion’s ExpreS2 technology.
Bavarian Nordic will support the consortium to achieve clinical proof of concept and takes responsibility for clinical development and global commercialisation of the vaccine. Current plan is to initiate a clinical study later this year.
Paul Chaplin, President & CEO of Bavarian Nordic said: “We have been interested in the capsid VLP technology for some time … This technology should lead to a strong protective immune response, even in high risk populations to COVID-19 and together with its high scalability in production make this a winning combination in the fight against this pandemic.”
“Bavarian Nordic perfectly complements our preclinical and early-stage clinical capabilities with their extensive late-clinical stage and market expertise. This partnership further validates our capsid VLP display platform.” said Wian de Jongh, AdaptVac’s Chief Executive Officer. “Critically, Bavarian Nordic’s support ensures the vaccine can reach vulnerable populations in the shortest possible timeline.”
The parties seek to enter into the final license agreement within the next two months. Upon execution of a final license agreement, Bavarian Nordic will make an initial upfront payment to Adaptvac in addition to future development and sales milestones and royalties.
Link to Press Release.