New partnership aims to advance vaccine against MERS coronavirus

• CEPI to invest funding of up to $34.8 million to Barinthus Bio in addition to funds previously committed to the University of Oxford to develop and stockpile a ready reserve of emergency MERS vaccine candidate, VTP-500.
• VTP-500 project with Barinthus Bio and University of Oxford uses tested ChAdOx1 platform.
• If successful in Phase II trials, this will progress VTP-500 significantly towards regulatory approval and doses could be rapidly deployed in a clinical trial setting in response to a substantial outbreak.
  

OXFORD, United Kingdom, Dec. 21, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Barinthus Biotherapeutics plc (NASDAQ: BRNS), formerly Vaccitech plc, today announced a project with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the University of Oxford, aiming to fast-track the development of a vaccine candidate known as VTP-500 for the prevention of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the often fatal disease caused by the MERS coronavirus. Barinthus Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel T cell immunotherapeutic candidates designed to guide the immune system to overcome chronic infectious diseases, autoimmunity, and cancer.

The project will see CEPI, Barinthus Bio, an Oxfordshire-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, and the University of Oxford together take a MERS vaccine from early development through Phase II clinical trials and, if the Phase II clinical trials are successful, on into the development of an investigational ready reserve¹ of 100,000 doses to be rapidly deployed in a clinical trial setting in the event of a substantial outbreak. 

“Coronaviruses are one of the most urgent infectious disease threats the world faces, so it’s vital that we get on with developing medical defences against this particularly deadly one – MERS,” said Dr Richard Hatchett, CEPI’s Chief Executive Officer. “With this project, we will both advance scientific understanding of the coronavirus family as a whole, and at the same time bolster humanity’s ability to respond to an ever-present epidemic threat.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic showed us the critical importance of vaccines in saving millions of lives around the world,” said Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford. “We had a head-start in our development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, thanks to the many years already spent researching a vaccine for another coronavirus, MERS. This new partnership will help ensure the world is better prepared with vaccines for future outbreaks.”