Bharat Biotech, others to get $19.3mn CEPI funding

Hyderabad: The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) on Tuesday said it will provide up to $19.3 million (about Rs 149 crore) to Bharat Biotech International, the University of Sydney, and Switzerland-based ExcellGene SA for the development of a "variant-proof" SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate.

CEPI will fund the initiative under its $200 million programme to advance the development of vaccines that provide broad protection against SARS-Cov-2 variants and other betacoronaviruses. The funding will support the consortium as it seeks to establish preclinical and clinical proof of concept for an adjuvanted subunit vaccine designed to provide broad protection against all known SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, as well as future variants of the virus which have not yet emerged.

CEPI will fund the researchers to conduct activities including immunogen design, preclinical studies, manufacturing process development and a Phase 1 clinical trial. "As repeated waves of Covid-19 infection remind us, we will be living alongside the virus for many years to come. The threat of a new variant emerging that might evade the protection of our current vaccines is real, so investing in R&D for variant-proof SARS-CoV-2 vaccines is a global health security imperative," CEPI CEO Richard Hatchett said.