Ab Initio partners on $1m grant to develop innovative COVID vaccine.
Ab Initio is pleased to be a key investigator on a successful grant funded by NSW Health’s Office of Health and Medical Research. The grant, worth $995,867, will support the development of a nasally inhaled COVID-19 vaccine to induce immunity in the airways and block transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to help prevent disease.
The grant is led by The Centenary Institute and is partnered with the University of Sydney and Ab Initio Pharma.
Chief Investigator of the project, Professor Warwick Britton AO, Head of the Centenary Institute’s Tuberculosis Research Program, said that there is an urgent need for new vaccine strategies that block COVID-19 transmission. “Although approved vaccines substantially reduce severe disease and hospitalisation, there is little evidence they block viral transmission, especially for newly emerging variants,” Professor Britton said.
The new nasal vaccine developed with Dr Anneliese Ashhurst (Medical Sciences) and Professor Richard Payne (Chemistry) at the University of Sydney will be inhaled to generate immunity in the nasal passages, as well as the airways and lungs, to provide protection from viral infection.
A critical part of the program will be the development of a stable form of the vaccine that can be inhaled nasally. Dr Paul Young, CEO of Ab Initio said “Our team have decades of experience in inhaled respiratory and nasal product development and this project is our bread-and-butter. With the completion of our GMP manufacturing facility in 2022, we are in a position to not only develop a innovative vaccine but be able to take it all the way through to clinical trials in a fully compliant and regulated environment”
When successfully translated to the clinic, this vaccine strategy will be a transformative innovation in the fight against SARS-CoV-2, addressing needs not met by current vaccines.
The COVID-19 Vaccine Acceleration Research Grants scheme from the Office of Health and Medical Research supports the research and development of next-generation COVID-19 vaccines in NSW.
