CEPI, THSTI and Panacea Biotec partner to develop betacoronavirus vaccines

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), today announced its programme, launched in March 2021, to advance the development of vaccines that provide broad protection against SARS-Cov-2 variants and other betacoronaviruses. CEPI will partner with a consortium comprising the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) and Panacea Biotec to develop vaccine candidates that could provide broad protection against SARS-Cov-2 variants and other betacoronaviruses, the companies said in a joint statement.

Under the terms of the funding agreement, THSTI and Panacea Biotec have committed to achieve equitable access to the outputs of this project, in line with CEPI’s Equitable Access Policy, the statement added.

Further, according to the statement, CEPI will provide funding of up to $12.5 million to support the development of multi-epitope, nanoparticle-based vaccine candidates and advance the manufacturing process. Through this research programme, THSTI and Panacea Biotec will design and select the lead antigen through proof-of-concept pre-clinical studies, and undertake initial clinical development through phase-I/II studies as they seek to establish clinical proof of concept for novel vaccine candidates to provide broad protection against MERS, SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.

Consortium partners THSTI and Panacea Biotec are using a novel technology platform with highly immunogenic antigens. Data from pre-clinical studies indicate that the vaccine platform induces both humoral and cellular mediated immune responses, added the statement.

The statement also said that if the platform is proven to be successful, it could potentially be used to enable rapid development of vaccines against disease X – unknown pathogens with pandemic potential that have yet to emerge.

CEPI is accelerating its programme to develop broadly protective coronavirus vaccines—a core part of its $3.5 billion pandemic preparedness plan—in view of the continued threat posed by new SARS-CoV-2 variants like Omicron. This partnership is the sixth to be announced under this programme, and more are expected to be announced shortly, concluded the statement.