CEPI grants USD 14.1 to Bharat Biotech consortium for Chikungunya vaccine

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations has signed an agreement to fund a consortium of Hyderabad-based vaccine maker Bharat Biotech and the International Vaccine Institute to fund up to $14 million to advance the development of a Chikungunya vaccine.

Hyderabad: The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) will provide a fund of USD 14.1 million to a consortium, comprising Bharat Biotech and International Vaccine Institute (IVI), for vaccine manufacturing and clinical development of a two-dose live-inactivated vaccine (BBV87) against Chikungunya.

CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations, launched at Davos in 2017, to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics.

This grant is supported by the European Unions (EU) Horizon 2020 programme through an existing framework partnership agreement with CEPI, a press release from the city-based vaccine manufacturer said on Wednesday.

The consortium will be further supported with a grant of up to USD 2 million from the centre's Ind-CEPI initiative which will fund the set-up of GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) manufacturing facilities for the vaccine in India, and the subsequent manufacture of clinical trial materials, it said.

In addition to manufacturing, the partnering agreement will finance a multi-centre Phase 2/3 adaptive clinical trial to be conducted by IVI in Colombia, Panama and Thailand which will provide crucial data about the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine candidate.

"The partnership will build on Bharat Biotech's experience of developing and supplying affordable vaccines, and WHO pre-qualification procedures, to ensure affordable access to the vaccine in countries where Chikungunya is endemic, in line with CEPI's core commitment to equitable access," it said.

The investment is part of CEPI's third call for proposals which was launched in January 2019.

Since the launch of this call, over USD 80 million of CEPI core funding has been committed to three Chikungunya vaccine candidates and two Rift Valley Fever vaccine candidates.

PTI