ExpreS2ion announces new EU-funded Horizon Europe grant award for Nipah virus vaccine development
Hørsholm, Denmark, 1 December 2023 – ExpreS2ion Biotech Holding AB’s affiliate ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies ApS (“ExpreS2ion") today announces the award of a Horizon Europe grant amounting to 8 million EUR, approximately 90 million SEK, to the VICI-Disease consortium, of which 53% is direct contribution for ExpreS2ion’s part of the project costs. The aim is to obtain clinical proof-of-concept of a Nipah virus (NiV) vaccine candidate within four years.
CEO Bent Frandsen comments:
“This is an important project in an area of public health concern that will benefit from our advantageous ExpreS2 platform. We look forward to working together again with several well-known development partners. For ExpreS2ion, it represents a significant non-dilutive funding and fits perfectly with our new strategic direction leveraging our platform to advance assets with shorter development timelines and less costly paths to value creation.”
The participants in the VICI-Disease consortium are world-leading experts in their respective fields, covering all relevant areas of viral vaccine research and development including expertise required for manufacturing of a Nipah virus vaccine. This involves pre-clinical and clinical Phase III-validated experience from other lethal viruses and technology platforms, including ExpreS2ion’s production platform ExpreS2, and AdaptVac’s capsid virus-like particle (cVLP) technology.
The VICI-Disease consortium consists of ExpreS2ion, AdaptVac, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), the Radboud university medical center (RUMC) and University of Copenhagen (UCPH). UCPH acts as the project coordinator. Furthermore, NIH/NIAID is a named subcontractor, and PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research and Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné (CERMEL) are associated participants in this grant-sponsored development project.
About the Nipah virus
Nipah virus infection in humans causes a range of clinical presentations, from asymptomatic infection (subclinical) to acute respiratory infection and fatal encephalitis. The case fatality rate is estimated at 40% to 75%. Nipah virus can be transmitted to humans from animals (such as bats or pigs), or contaminated foods and can also be transmitted directly from human to human. Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are the natural host of Nipah virus. There is no treatment or vaccine available for either people or animals. More information on WHO’s webpage www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/nipah-virus.
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