Crozet Biopharma to Partner with Public Health Vaccines for Nipah Virus Vaccine

Crozet BioPharma, LLC, a biotechnology company that specializes in developing medical countermeasures for infectious diseases and cancer, announced it is partnering with Public Health Vaccines, LLC (PHV) via a $10.8 million partnering agreement. The companies plan to develop and manufacture a vaccine for the Nipah virus, a bat-borne virus that causes brain inflammation and pneumonia with a high mortality rate in humans. 

Crozet and PHV will work with a team of vaccine developers and manage a coalition of partners to develop the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV)-Nipah vaccine, according to an Aug. 26, 2019 press release. The collaboration involves the design and oversight of technical elements of the development program including manufacturing and quality control of the vaccine, nonclinical safety and efficacy studies, tests for measuring immune responses, and Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials.

According to the press release, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has granted PHV funding to support pre-clinical development, manufacturing, clinical advancement through Phase 2, and establishment of an investigational stockpile of the vaccine candidate worth up to $43.6 million.

The vaccine was developed by Heinz Feldmann from the Laboratory of Virology, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and has been licensed to PHV by NIAID. The vaccine is designed to induce protection against the virus after a single dose.

"The Crozet team spent several years developing the successful rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine. That expertise will greatly facilitate advancement of the rVSV-Nipah vaccine,” said Thomas Monath, the managing partner and chief scientific officer at Crozet Biopharma, in the press release. “We look forward to our partnership with PHV, support from CEPI, and the opportunity to work with an extraordinary coalition of experts to develop a rVSV-Nipah vaccine candidate."

Source: Crozet Biopharma