Vir Biotechnology Awarded BARDA Funding to Support Development of Antibody Platform Technologies for Global Infectious Disease Threats

– New investment of approximately $50 million from Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority includes $40 million in Project NextGen funds –

– Contract expands existing support for the development of candidates for prevention and treatment of pathogens of pandemic potential –

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vir Biotechnology, Inc. (Nasdaq: VIR) today announced that the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), has awarded Vir approximately $50 million in new funding to advance the development of novel monoclonal antibody (mAb) candidates and delivery solutions to widen the applicability of mAbs in COVID-19 and in pandemic preparedness and response.

“We are honored to continue to collaborate with the U.S. government as we leverage our world-class antibody platform with the hope of generating powerful new medicines to protect our communities from global infectious disease threats, including pathogens with pandemic potential,” said Marianne De Backer, M.Sc., Ph.D., MBA, Vir’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are grateful to the U.S. government for its continued support of our innovative technological approaches in mAb research and development as we seek to optimize mAb delivery. We look forward to starting this with VIR-7229, a next-generation COVID-19 mAb that has been shown in preclinical studies to have high potency against historical and currently circulating variants, and that has the potential to be the best in class.”

The new funding will support research and development of novel alternative mAb delivery technologies that have the potential to revolutionize mAb delivery by increasing expression relative to existing technologies. Such delivery could widen the breadth of administration options and shorten development and manufacturing timelines.

$40 million of the total funds is part of ‘Project NextGen,’ an initiative by the HHS to advance a pipeline of new, innovative vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19 and will support the development of VIR-7229 through Phase 1 in the context of developing alternative mAb delivery technologies. The Phase 1 trial is expected to be completed in the second half of 2025. $10 million of the total funds falls under support from the Division of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) medical countermeasures of BARDA which will support the discovery of new mAbs against a second pathogen of pandemic potential in the context of further advancing alternative mAb delivery technologies.