CEPI will provide Clover Biopharmaceuticals Australia with $3.5 million to prepare and begin a phase I trial of that company's protein-based COVID-19 S‑Trimer vaccine candidate.

The vaccine is based on Clover's Trimer-Tag vaccine technology, which can produce spike proteins of the COVID-19 virus in trimeric form for vaccine use, according to CEPI.

The project is the ninth of its kind that CEPI has supported since late January, bringing its total investment in COVID-19 vaccine development to $39.6 million, it said. Other projects include those led by Curevac, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Moderna, Novavax, the University of Hong Kong, the University of Oxford, the University of Queensland, and Institut Pasteur.

Clover Biopharmaceuticals Australia is a subsidiary of Sichuan Clover Biopharmaceuticals in China.

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