CEPI, Pune firm to fund development of mRNA vaccine tech

Testing the vaccine candidate against this known virus, with the accepted correlates of protection, will help to assess the concepts behind this new technology.

This funding forms part of the CEPI’s programme to support novel RNA vaccine platform technologies for emerging and select endemic infectious diseases.

Dr Sanjay Singh, chief executive officer, said, “We are very pleased about entering into a funding agreement with the CEPI.

Gennova’s decade-long collaborations with eminent research institutes across the world such as the USFDA, NIH, JHU, OSU, WEHI, LSHTM, and SSI among others in the field of infectious diseases and vaccinology, prepared Gennova to rise to the challenge of making an mRNA-based pandemic-ready manufacturing platform.”

“When the Covid-19 hit and paralysed the world, Gennova developed two of its mRNA-based vaccines for Covid-19 — which received emergency use authorisation (EUA) for India — validating the platform technology.

The effort was supported by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) through partial strategic seed funding from the Covid-19 consortium under the Ind-CEPI Mission — ‘Epidemic preparedness through rapid vaccine development: Support of Indian vaccine development aligned with the global initiative of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)’. On a bigger canvas, we look forward to working together with the CEPI to further improve the saRNA-technology platform aiding in vaccine democratisation and equitable access,” Singh added.