Oragenics Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN: OGEN) has signed a licensing agreement with the National Research Council of Canada that will rapidly develop SARS-CoV-2 virus vaccines and for its variants.
NRC technologies to enable Oragenics to produce SARS-CoV-2 vaccine
The NRC tech and the US National Institutes of Health elements established that Oragenics’ Terra CoV-2 vaccine gives it’s a platform to generate high-yield production cell lines of spike protein antigens for emerging and current strains of concern. In addition, the platform will enable the production of cell lines in six to eight weeks of availability of spike gene sequence. Notably, NRTC technologies were developed in conjunction with support from NRC’s Pandemic Response Challenge Program, and they will accelerate the evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 antigen candidates in both clinical and pre-clinical studies.
Oragenics Executive Chairman Frederick Telling said, “Entering into this licensing Agreement as well as a separate material transfer agreement with the NRC are expected to have a profound, positive impact on our company’s strategic direction and we look forward to pursuing the development of next-generation vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. We believe the combination of our previously licensed NIH technology with the NRC’s swift expression platform will accelerate design of new vaccine candidates that benefit from the hybrid NIH/NRC constructs. This license enables us to jumpstart IND-enabling animal studies with supplies of spike proteins to address the wild-type Wuhan virus as well as the Beta (B.1.351 or “South African”) variant that is currently of global concern among public health professionals.”
Oroigenics commenced pre-clinical studies in June
The company commenced pre-clinical studies in June through the partnership with NRC. In order to examine numerous adjuvant options, the company started immunogenicity research in mice. The study will enable the adjuvant candidates to be narrowed down, with the progress of the best to a hamster challenge study testing viral replication inhibition and an IND-permitting GLP toxicity trial.
