Oxford University’s SpyBiotech strikes Covid-19 vaccine deal with SIIPL

Indian Professor Sumi Biswas, the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of SpyBiotech – an Oxford University has a spinoff company with a novel vaccine platform to target infectious diseases, cancer and chronic diseases. It has revealed that its Indian partner, the Serum Institute of India (SIIPL), has begun trials of a novel virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine targeting Covid-19 which has the potential to offer a groundbreaking new approach to fighting the pandemic. According to Prof Biswas, the first subjects have been dosed in a Phase I/II trial. SpyBiotech said it has signed an exclusive global licensing agreement with SIIPL for the development of the vaccine as part of the study initiated in Australia. Biswas, who is a Kolkata-born immunologist, said, “Combining SpyBiotech’s unique platform technology with Serum’s extensive expertise developing VLPs and its manufacturing capability is an exciting development at a critical time, giving us the tools to produce the large volume of doses required to support the global fight against Covid-19.” SpyBiotech has exclusive rights from the University of Oxford to apply, commercialise and sub-license the “plug and display” technology for vaccine development.   Lachlan Mackinnon, Oxford Sciences Innovation Principal and SpyBiotech Chairman said, “Combining the benefits of SpyBiotech’s protein ‘superglue’ technology with the known safety and immunogenicity of the Serum Institute’s Hepatitis B surface antigen virus-like particle offers the potential for an effective, safe COVID-19 vaccine which could be manufactured at scale.”