Vax-Hub awards funding to support Oxford-Sartorius Coronavirus projects

The Future Vaccine Manufacturing Research Hub (Vax-Hub) is a three-year project funded by the DHSC that aims to ensure uninterrupted and affordable vaccine supply for LMI countries while addressing a rapid response to epidemic threats. Vax-Hub’s vision is to make the UK the global centre for integrated discovery through to bioprocess manufacture of next-generation vaccines. The Hub provides platform funding and recently awarded a number of interaction vouchers, which are designed to encourage and support collaboration between academia and industry.  Two of the vouchers were awarded to support collaborative projects between Sartorius and the University of Oxford.

The first project 'Cost of goods evaluation of adenovirus-based vaccine against Coronavirus' aims to understand the impact of process and technology choices on the distribution of cost of goods of an adenovirus-based vaccine at a manufacturing scale. This important study, which brings together process and technology expertise, aims not only to recognise the benefits of optimal process choice on the final cost per dose to make it affordable to a larger population but also to target process change in a rational way.  

Given the current situation with Coronavirus, it is paramount that a vaccine can be manufactured quickly and at large scale to cater to needs in demanding situations. The second project 'Improving scalability and productivity of an adenovirus-based vaccine against Coronavirus' aims to remove certain bottlenecks in the process that can prevent a straightforward and expedited scale up. Dr Piergiuseppe Nestola from Sartorius said: 
“We are joining forces with Oxford University to combine Sartorius expertise in seamless scale-up with the process knowledge from Oxford University. The aim is to develop the optimal process(es) that can efficiently manufacture the vaccine candidate.”

More information:

• Visit the Vax-Hub website for further information.
• Find out more news about vaccines at Sartorius here.