Potential supply of influenza vaccine for Southeast Asia

Cytos Biotechnology and Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) announce their first collaboration on a virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine.

This partnership, which involves academic and clinical partners across Singapore, aims at research, development and commercialisation of a VLP vaccine to manage influenza infections.

This collaboration could potentially secure an independent supply of vaccines for Singapore and other ASEAN countries to protect against seasonal influenza and future pandemics and extends Cytos’ R&D pipeline.

Under this agreement, Cytos will work with A*STAR’s Experimental Therapeutics Centre and Singapore Immunology Network to develop and produce a VLP based vaccine targeting the influenza hemagglutinin protein.

The vaccine candidate will then be further evaluated in pre-clinical safety and efficacy studies by DSO National Laboratories.

Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore and the Singapore Clinical Research Institute will conduct a proof-of-concept study to evaluate the safety of the vaccine and its capacity to induce virus-neutralising antibodies (HI titers).

Thereafter, Cytos will hold the worldwide, sub-licensable rights to further develop, manufacture and commercialise the vaccine while A*STAR subsidiaries will be entitled to produce the vaccine for Singapore and other ASEAN countries.

A*STAR subsidiaries can earn a royalty on worldwide net sales from influenza vaccine products developed under the terms of this agreement.

Professor Sir George Radda, chairman of A*STAR’s Biomedical Research Council which funds part of the research, commented, “We are extremely excited at the progress and scale of this collaboration. It is thanks to the suite of capabilities in Singapore from basic to translational research, and to the technological know-how at Cytos, that such a product can be brought from discovery to clinical delivery, to provide rapid and cost-effective protection against pandemics. We look forward to forging more such powerful partnerships with industry and healthcare organisations to meet public health needs and benefit society.”

Dr Martin Bachmann, chief scientific officer of Cytos, said, “Through access to Singapore’s centres of scientific and drug development excellence, we have the opportunity to gain clinical proof-of-concept for one of Cytos’ VLP vaccines in the prophylactic setting. The influenza vaccine collaboration is the first of its kind for Cytos and offers us the chance to, on the one hand, support Singapore and other member states of ASEAN in becoming more self-sufficient with provision of vaccines relevant to their emerging issues in public health, and, on the other hand, contribute a valuable product candidate to extend Cytos’ existing pipeline.”