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New partnership aims to advance vaccine against MERS coronavirus

January 2, 2024 – Clinical Trials – Barinthus Biotherapeutics, CEPI, COVID-19, vaccines

CEPI to invest up to $47m to develop and stockpile a ready reserve of emergency MERS vaccine candidate, VTP-500
VTP-500 project with Barinthus Bio and University of Oxford, UK, uses tested ChAdOx1 platform
If successful in phase 2 trials, this will progress VTP-500 significantly towards regulatory approval and doses could be rapidly deployed in a clinical trial setting in response to a substantial outbreak.

21 December 2023 — Oxford, UK — Barinthus Biotherapeutics, formerly Vaccitech, today announced a $47m project with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the University of Oxford, aiming to fast-track the development of a vaccine candidate known as VTP-500 for the prevention of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the often fatal disease caused by the MERS coronavirus. Barinthus Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel T-cell immunotherapeutic candidates designed to guide the immune system to overcome chronic infectious diseases, autoimmunity, and cancer.

The project will see CEPI, Barinthus Bio, an Oxfordshire-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, and the University of Oxford together take a MERS vaccine from early development through phase 2 clinical trials and, if the phase 2 clinical trials are successful, on into the development of an investigational ready reserve of 100,000 doses to be rapidly deployed in a clinical trial setting in the event of a substantial outbreak.

“Coronaviruses are one of the most urgent infectious disease threats the world faces, so it’s vital that we get on with developing medical defences against this particularly deadly one – MERS,” said Dr Richard Hatchett, CEPI’s CEO. “With this project, we will both advance scientific understanding of the coronavirus family as a whole, and at the same time bolster humanity’s ability to respond to an ever-present epidemic threat.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic showed us the critical importance of vaccines in saving millions of lives around the world,” said Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford. “We had a head-start in our development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, thanks to the many years already spent researching a vaccine for another coronavirus, MERS. This new partnership will help ensure the world is better prepared with vaccines for future outbreaks.”

“We are thrilled to be working with the University of Oxford and CEPI on the development of this important vaccine candidate,” said Bill Enright, Barinthus Bio’s CEO. “There is an active need for a MERS vaccine for at-risk populations and travellers in the Middle East. As we observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical to ensure we have the necessary countermeasures in place to protect people around the world from deadly pathogens such as MERS which have the potential for future outbreaks.”

The three-way partnership, which awards $34.8m to Barinthus Bio, builds on the early-stage development of VTP-500, which is based on the same viral vector platform technology as the licensed Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria. VTP-500 has already completed phase 1 clinical trials in Britain and Saudi Arabia, and the University of Oxford is now conducting a CEPI-funded extension to the phase 1 trial in the UK to assess vaccination of older adults, the age group most in need of this vaccine. The VTP-500 programme was awarded PRIME designation earlier in December by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

MERS is a severe respiratory infection caused by MERS-CoV, a coronavirus that was first identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia. It has caused more than 2,600 human infections in at least 27 countries since it first emerged, and it has a case-fatality rate of more than 35%. There are as yet no licensed vaccines or treatments for MERS.

Enabling equitable access to VTP-500

CEPI, the University of Oxford and Barinthus Bio are committed to enabling equitable access to VTP-500 in line with CEPI’s Equitable Access Policy so the vaccine is first available to populations when and where it is needed to end an outbreak or curtail an epidemic, regardless of ability to pay. If the vaccine is successful in phase 2 trials, CEPI will support production of an investigational ready reserve of 100,000 doses which can be rapidly deployed in a clinical trial setting in response to an outbreak of MERS. CEPI also has the ability to add an additional appropriate regional manufacturer to support with supply for low- and middle-income countries. The vaccine will be made available to low- and middle-income countries at a price no higher than the cost of manufacturing plus 10%.

About CEPI

CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic and civil organisations, launched at Davos in 2017. Its mission is to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic threats so they can be accessible to all people in need.

CEPI has supported the development of over 30 vaccine candidates against its priority pathogens –Chikungunya virus, Ebola Virus Disease, Lassa virus, MERS coronavirus, Nipah virus, Rift Valley Fever virus and SARS-CoV-2 – and is a leading funder of research into broadly protective coronavirus vaccines, which could protect against future variants of COVID-19 as well as other coronaviruses with epidemic and pandemic potential. The organisation has also invested in the development of rapid response platforms to develop vaccines against Disease X (the threat of an unknown virus).

CEPI has contributed to a number of scientific breakthroughs, including the first phase 3 trial of a Chikungunya vaccine and the advancement of the first ever Nipah and Lassa vaccines into phase 1 trials. The organisation played a central role in the global response to COVID-19, supporting the development of one of the world’s largest portfolios of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, seven of which have been approved for domestic or global use. It also co-led COVAX, the global initiative to deliver fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, which has delivered approximately 2 billion doses of vaccine to 146 countries around the world.

CEPI’s five-year plan for 2022-2026 aims to dramatically reduce or even eliminate the future risk of pandemics and epidemics. Central to the plan is CEPI’s goal to compress the time taken to develop safe, effective, globally accessible vaccines against new threats to just 100 days. Achieving this ‘100 Days Mission’, which has been embraced by the G7 and G20, would give the world a fighting chance of containing a future outbreak before it can spread to become a global pandemic. Visit: https://cepi.net/.

About Barinthus Biotherapeutics

Barinthus Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel T-cell immunotherapeutic candidates designed to guide the immune system to overcome chronic infectious diseases, autoimmunity and cancer. Helping people living with serious diseases and their families is the guiding principle at the heart of Barinthus Bio. With a broad pipeline built around three proprietary platform technologies (ChAdOx, MVA and SNAP), Barinthus Bio is advancing a pipeline of five product candidates across a diverse range of therapeutic areas, including: VTP-300, an immunotherapeutic candidate designed as a potential component of a functional cure for chronic HBV infection; VTP-200, a non-surgical product candidate for persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV); VTP-1000, an autoimmune candidate designed to utilise the SNAP-Tolerance Immunotherapy (TI) platform to treat patients with celiac disease; VTP-850, a second-generation immunotherapeutic candidate designed to treat recurrent prostate cancer; and VTP-1100, a preclinical cancer candidate designed to utilise the SNAP-Cancer Immunotherapy (CI) platform to treat patients with HPV-related cancer. Barinthus Bio’s proven scientific expertise, diverse portfolio and focus on pipeline development uniquely positions the company to navigate towards delivering treatments for people with infectious diseases, autoimmunity and cancers that have a significant impact on their everyday lives. For more information, visit www.barinthusbio.com.