July 8, 2020 -- The Coalition for Epidemic Prepardeness Innovations (CEPI) has expanded its partnership with Clover Biopharmaceuticals for the development and manufacture of Clover's COVID-19 S-Trimer vaccine candidate.
The vaccine is based on Clover's Trimer-Tag vaccine technology platform. S-Trimer resembles the native trimeric SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and is produced via a rapid mammalian cell-culture based expression system.
Through the partnership, CEPI will invest an additional $66 million in upfront payment that will fund preclinical studies, a phase I clinical trial, and preparation of global sites for further clinical development. A phase I clinical trial began enrolling participants on June 19.
Meanwhile, Clover is scaling up its manufacturing capacity to allow for the production of hundreds of millions of doses per year. If clinical development is successful, the partnership agreement indicates that CEPI will provide additional funding to bring the S-trimer vaccine candidate through licensure in China and globally.
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