As the coronavirus continues to plague countries throughout the world, scientists have been scrambling to develop a vaccine for the illness as the number of global cases surpasses 1 million and deaths top 76,000.
More than 140 experimental drug treatments and vaccines for the coronavirus are currently in development worldwide, and a Wisconsin startup is among those working towards a cure.
Madison biopharmaceutical startup FluGen, founded by Gabriele Neumann, Paul Radspinner and Yoshihiro Kawaoka, is working with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and India-based Bharat Biotech to develop and test a vaccine for COVID-19.
Called CoroFlu, the vaccine is based on FluGen’s flu vaccine candidate known as M2SR, which is currently being tested in human clinical trials. To tailor the vaccine to treat coronavirus, FluGen scientists are inserting gene sequences from SARS-CoV-2 into M2SR so that the new vaccine will induce immunity against the coronavirus.
The CoroFlu vaccine is currently being tested in animals at UW-Madison’s Influenza Research Institute, and development is expected to continue for the next three to six months, with CoroFlu possibly being ready to be tested in human clinical trials as soon as this fall, the company said. Like M2SR, CoroFlu will be delivered to patients through the nose via an intra-nasal drop method that helps activate the immune system.
“We are going to modify M2SR by adding part of the coding region for the coronavirus spike protein that the virus uses to latch onto cells and begin infection,” Neumann said in a statement. “CoroFlu will also express the influenza virus hemagglutinin protein, which is the major influenza virus antigen, so we should get immune responses to both coronavirus and influenza.”
Once CoroFlu is ready for human testing, Bharat Biotech, which has commercialized 16 vaccines, including one that fights against H1H1, will manufacture CoroFlu, conduct clinical trials and prepare to produce it for global distribution. Bharat says it can produce nearly 300 million doses per year.
“The core mission of Bharat Biotech is to apply innovative technologies in addressing the healthcare concerns of the developing world and to provide them with affordable, high quality vaccines and therapeutics,” says Raches Ella, the head of business development at Bharat, in a statement. “Ninety percent of our vaccines are sold in lower middle-income countries with affordable pricing being core to our business model. We will fervently work toward the successful development of an efficacious COVID-19 vaccine.”
Since launching in 2007, FluGen has specialized in creating vaccines to fight mutating strains of influenza around the world. To date, the startup has raised $60 million, according to Crunchbase.
