EpiVax Accelerates COVID-19 Vaccine Development

EpiVax announces a collaboration to develop a novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccine with University of Georgia’s Ted Ross (Director, Center for Vaccines and Immunology (CVI)). The COVID-19 virus emerged in January 2020, impacting over 94,000 individuals, in China and 70 additional countries, while dealing a significant blow to the global economy.

EpiVax has developed proprietary in silico tools that identify the key regions of viral sequences that should be included in vaccines to keep individuals safe from infection, while excluding other sequences that make the vaccine less effective or safe. EpiVax has applied their vaccine reengineering approach to Avian influenza (H7N9) in an NIH funded program with UGA, and UMASS Medical School to address pandemic preparedness. Rapid analysis and vaccine design have proven effective for H7N9 and will likely boost the success of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate. As a result, EpiVax and the Ross lab have applied to the NIH for additional funds to apply their rapid vaccine development process to the novel COVID-19 virus, recapitulating the proven success of the H7N9 program.

At UGA, Dr. Ross's lab is ready to begin, having already obtained the COVID-19 virus for testing. Working in the high-security containment facility, the Ross Lab can produce and test the reengineered vaccine, expecting to show that the optimized candidate is more effective at providing protection in animal models.

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