Seoul and Oslo, 21st December 2021 – SK bioscience (SK) and CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, announced today an expanded partnership to develop a ‘variant-proof’ vaccine candidate against the group of viruses containing SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2.
CEPI will provide up to USD $50 million to support the development of a vaccine candidate based on SK’s nanoparticle vaccine platform to elicit immune responses that could protect against variants of both SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and other similar viruses. The funding will support immunogen design, preclinical studies, Phase I/II clinical trials, production of necessary clinical trial material, and process and analytical development. To date, CEPI has invested up to $260 million—including the funding announced today—to advance SK’s vaccine platform and manufacturing capacity for use against COVID-19.
This partnership is the latest award under CEPI’s $200 million programme, launched in March 2021, to advance the development of vaccines that provide broad protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants and other Betacoronaviruses [[The Betacoronavirus genus includes the subgenus known as sarbecovirus. Sarbecoviruses include types of coronavirus that cause Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which have been responsible for major outbreaks in Asia in recent years, and also SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic]]. 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.
More details available at https://cepi.net/news_cepi/cepi-expands-partnership-with-sk-bioscience-to-develop-a-variant-proof-vaccine-against-sars-cov-and-sars-cov-2-variants/ ; https://cepi.net/news_cepi/cepi-and-sk-bioscience-to-develop-next-generation-covid-19-vaccine/
