CyanVac has partnered with CDMO Exothera to develop and manufacture its intranasal COVID-19 vaccine candidate CVXGA1 using the scale-X platform. Georgia, US-based vaccine developer, CyanVac has selected contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) Exothera to advance development of a manufacturing process for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate that is administered intranasally as a single dose to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection. “We have been working on intranasal vaccines for over 20 years,” Biao He, CEO and founder of CyanVac told BioProcess Insider. “The viral vector…

Oxford BioMedica has signed a three-year contract to manufacture and supply viral vectors to support Boehringer Ingelheim’ s cell and gene therapy pipeline. Under the terms of the Development and Supply Agreement (DSA), Oxford BioMedica will manufacture batches for German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. The agreement also enables Oxford BioMedica to produce and supply viral vector products in the future. The manufacturing will take place at Oxford BioMedica’s Windrush Court site, located in Oxford, UK as well as at one…

CARB-X will donate up to $2 million to the Jenner Institute (part of the University of Oxford) to produce a vaccine that prevents gonorrhoea.   The researchers will work alongside the Oxford Vaccine Group with the aim to develop a vaccine that will create immunity against gonorrhoea and prevent individuals from developing the disease. Furthermore, it intends to stop the spread of antibiotic resistance that is found in gonococcal bacteria.   The gonorrhoea vaccine (dmGC_0817560) contains blebs (fluid-filled blisters) from the outer surface of gonococcus, which is the Native Outer Membrane…

Diabetes gene therapy firm appoints two ex AveXis execs to its board. Meanwhile, there are high level changes at  Merck, AlloVir and Abeona Therapeutics. Sit back, relax, and enjoy reading BioProcess Insider’s Ins & Outs. Former founding chief science and chief finance officers at AveXis, Brian Kaspar and Thomas Dee will join Endsulin to help develop the firm’s gene therapy against Type 1 diabetes. Enduslin is a company that is solely targeting Type 1 diabetes (T1D) with a potential one-time…

GSK will manufacture up to 60 million doses of Novavax’ COVID-19 vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373 for distribution in the UK. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will provide fill-finish services for Novavax’ COVID-19 vaccine at its Barnard Castle facility in Durham, UK. A rapid tech-transfer between the two firms will begin immediately, with manufacturing expected to begin as early as May 2021. GSK will prepare vials of the final vaccine in the last stage of manufacturing and package them for distribution and use, with both…

JSR has launched a corporate venture fund focusing on small and emerging biotech, bringing customers to its life sciences services portfolio.   Initially, the fund will prioritise evolving life science companies that have the platforms, technologies and approaches to support life science research, manufacturing, development, and the ability to improve therapeutic outcomes. JSR Life Sciences is set to leverage the investment to fund several deals in the next few years in a bid to continue identifying and advancing therapies and…

Oramed Pharmaceuticals and Prema Biotech have formed Oravax Medical, a joint venture focused on developing oral COVID-19 vaccines. The joint venture company, Oravax, will use India-based Premas Biotech’s vaccine technology combined with Israel-based Oramed’s POD oral delivery technology. Oravax’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate is a virus like particle (VLP) that targets three structural proteins, which has the potential to provide protection against emerging variants of coronavirus. Furthermore, the oral administration of the vaccine may enable easier distribution and large-scale inoculation without…

The financing will support Curi Bio’s 2D and 3D platforms, which aim to improve the predictivity of human stem cell-derived tissue for drug discovery. Curi Bio’s platform technologies use human iPSC-derived cells, tissue-specific biosystems, and AI-enabled data analytics to help accelerate the discovery of therapeutics. The Series A financing round, led by Dynamk Capital, will help grow the business and validate the tech to show the need for predictive and mature human stem cell platforms to close the gap between…

Selexis has entered a cell line development partnership with Tallac Therapeutics to advance immunotherapies used to treat cancer. Both companies have signed a service agreement and a commercial license agreement to strengthen Tallac’s Toll-like Receptor Agonist Antibody Conjugate (TRAAC) platform. The platform allows “systemic delivery of a differentiated and targeted TLR9 agonist (T-CpG) for immune activation.” The collaboration will also see Tallac employ Selexis’ SUREtechnology platform, which is used to advance the research cell banks to enable immunotherapy candidates that…