Codagenix and Univercells Collaborate on Vaccine Research for Undisclosed Target

Codagenix, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing prophylactic vaccines and oncolytic virus therapies, and Univercells, a global life sciences company specializing in next-generation bioprocessing technologies, have entered into a research collaboration agreement to pursue the development of an undisclosed, high-priority human vaccine target with global public health demand.

Under the agreement, the partners will use Codagenix’s synthetic attenuated virus engineering (SAVE) platform, which offers safe, synthetic, live-attenuated virus vaccine development, and Univercells’ viral vaccine process development and manufacturing capacity, which is operated by Exothera, its contract development and manufacturing organization, the companies announced in a May 20, 2021 company press release.

Codagenix is developing a live-attenuated vaccine against an undisclosed, high-priority target, for which it has successfully developed codon-pair deoptimized, attenuated virus cultured in Vero cells. With the agreement, Univercells will assess Codagenix’s vaccine candidate in Univercells Technologies’ (a Univercells company) scale-X bioreactor system, a single-use bioreactor designed to deliver intensified production of viral products by relying on a novel structured fixed-bed design.

Commercial production will later be feasible in Unvercells’ NevoLine upstream manufacturing platform, which uses Univercells Technologies’ latest equipment and is designed to enable the scalable production of viral vectors. The manufacturing platform offers high production throughput and lower long-term operational costs, according to Univercells in the press release.

“Univercells’ viral vaccine manufacturing capabilities are the perfect fit for Codagenix as we expand our portfolio of vaccines developed using our SAVE platform, which utilizes a computer algorithm to recode the genomes of viruses and construct live-attenuated vaccines. This proprietary system enables Codagenix to transform a dangerous viral pathogen into a safe vaccine or solid-tumor therapeutic,” said J. Robert Coleman, PhD, CEO of Codagenix, in the press release. “Like COVIVAC, our single-dose, intranasal, live-attenuated vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, we believe the vaccine candidate now partnered with Univercells is well-positioned to address the shortcomings of existing interventions against a deadly global health challenge and—if successful—ensure large-scale availability at an affordable price.”

“Codagenix has identified what could be a highly potent vaccine against a high-priority disease target with persistent global public health demand. We believe this vaccine is ideally suited for production via Univercells’ proprietary manufacturing system and welcome the opportunity to work with Codagenix to advance its development,” said Hugues Bultot, CEO of Univercells, in the press release.

Source: Univercells