May 13, 2020 -- Israeli firm Ramot has inked a license agreement with Neovii, a Swiss-based biopharmaceutical company, for the research and development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Ramot is Tel Aviv University's technology transfer company. University researchers have been working with coronaviruses for over 15 years, and shortly after SARS-CoV-2 emerged they began reconstituting a receptor binding motif as the basis for a new vaccine.
Under the agreement, Neovii will hold exclusive rights to develop and commercialize an epitope-based vaccine platform for the rapid discovery of a novel COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine under development aims to reconstruct the coronavirus's receptor binding motif within the spike protein. The company will work to manufacture and deliver a commercial product to the general population on an accelerated timeline.