Bavarian Nordic Enters Agreement with AdaptVac to Advance COVID-19 Vaccine Program |
Wednesday, 06. May 2020 08:00 |
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark, May 6, 2020 – Bavarian Nordic A/S (OMX: BAVA, OTC: BVNRY) today announced that it has entered into an exclusive head of terms agreement with AdaptVac, a joint venture established by ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies and NextGen Vaccines spun out of the University of Copenhagen, to license AdaptVac’s proprietary capsid virus like particle (VLP) based SARS-CoV-2 subunit vaccine. The parties seek to enter into the final license agreement within the next two months. AdaptVac 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. AdaptVac’s technology has the potential to mimic a 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. Bavarian Nordic will support the consortium to achieve clinical proof of concept and takes responsibility for clinical development and global commercialization 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 and are pleased to support and rapidly advance this highly promising vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2. 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. We are excited to join forces with Danish biotech companies AdaptVac and ExpreS2ion, as well as the University of Copenhagen and other members of the PREVENT-nCoV consortium in rapidly advancing this differentiated vaccine to the clinic and subsequently leading further development activities.” “AdaptVac and the PREVENT-nCoV consortium are delighted to have Bavarian Nordic join our SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development efforts. Bavarian Nordic perfectly complements our pre-clinical and early stage clinical capabilities with their extensive late-clinical stage and market expertise. This partnership further validates our capsid VLP display platform as a break-through technology to combat infectious and chronic diseases.” said Wian de Jongh, AdaptVac’s CEO, “Critically, Bavarian Nordic’s support ensures the vaccine can reach vulnerable populations in the shortest possible timeline.” 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. This agreement has no impact on Bavarian Nordic’s financial guidance for 2020. About AdaptVac AdaptVac is a member of the PREVENT-nCoV consortium that earlier this year received an EU Horizon grant to rapidly advance AdaptVac’s vaccine candidate against COVID-19 into the clinic. In addition to AdaptVac, the consortium members are ExpreS2ion, Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Institute for Tropical Medicine (ITM) at University of Tübingen, The Department of Immunology and Microbiology (ISIM) at University of Copenhagen, and the Laboratory of Virology at Wageningen University. About Bavarian Nordic Forward-looking statements Contacts Company Announcement no. 28 / 2020 Attachment |
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