VBI to develop pan-coronavirus vaccine candidate targeting Covid-19, SARS and MERS. Credit: Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash.

Visit our Covid-19 microsite for the latest coronavirus news, analysis and updates

Follow the latest Covid-19 updates on our timeline.

Go deeper with GlobalData

Premium Insights

The gold standard of business intelligence.

Find out more

Related Company Profiles

View all

VBI Vaccines has partnered with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) to create a pan-coronavirus vaccine candidate.

The candidate will aim to target Covid-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) infections caused by different coronaviruses.

VBI will offer its viral vaccine expertise, eVLP technology platform and coronavirus antigens.

Meanwhile, NRC will contribute to the alliance via its Covid-19 antigens and assay development capabilities. The partners intend to discover a vaccine candidate the most immunogenic.

How well do you really know your competitors?

Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

Company Profile – free sample

Thank you!

Your download email will arrive shortly

Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

By GlobalData
Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

VBI Vaccines chief medical officer Francisco Diaz-Mitoma said: “Coronaviruses are enveloped viruses by nature which we believe makes them a prime target for VBI’s flexible enveloped virus-like particle (eVLP) platform technology, ongoing development of which is led and conducted at our research facility in Ottawa, Canada.

“Based on past clinical experience with the eVLP platform, we expect that a multivalent eVLP vaccine candidate, co-expressing SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV spike proteins on the same particle, will be possible to develop.”

Diaz-Mitoma added that the trivalent construct may facilitate the generation of broadly reactive antibodies that could potentially protect from mutated Covid-19 strains in the future.

VBI Vaccines and NRC will work together to assess and select the optimal candidate.

The plan is to conduct IND-enabling pre-clinical studies at NRC’s core facilities and VBI’s research facility in Ottawa, Canada. The company expects the clinical study materials to be available in the fourth quarter of this year.

NRC Life Sciences vice-president Roman Szumski said: “We are working hard to be part of the solution in this time of increasing uncertainty by providing key Canadian expertise and facilities to help address the real and potential global impacts of Covid-19.”

According to John Hopkin’s University, Covid-19 has led to nearly 874,000 confirmed cases and 43,200 deaths to date.