Panacea Biotec has collaborated with Refana Inc. USA to make candidate Covid-19 vaccine widely accessible around the world in an equitable manner through a Joint Venture company based in Ireland.
The collaboration aims to bring to patients a whole inactivated virus-based vaccine for Covid-19, an official release said. Under the collaboration, Panacea Biotec will be responsible for product development and commercial manufacturing, with the Joint Venture undertaking clinical development and regulatory submissions across the World. Both Panacea and Refana will undertake sales and distribution of the vaccine in their respective territories.
Panacea Biotec Managing Director Dr Rajesh Jain said that they aim to manufacture over 500 million doses of Covid-19 candidate vaccine, with over 40 million doses expected to be available for delivery early next year. “Our candidate vaccine is based on tried and tested technologies that have been proven over decades with existing vaccines. Whole inactivated viral vaccines have a higher probability of being safe and efficacious, given their long history and better understanding of their mechanism of action, which has been elucidated over many decades. Our vaccine leverages a dose-sparing Adjuvant to maximise the number of immunisations available for distribution. Additionally, intramuscular/sub-cutaneous mode of administration with pre-existing, compatible infrastructure ensures adequate supply chain availability until the last mile. This vaccine has the potential to become the Vaccine of Choice for the global fight against Covid-19. We believe and hope that our vaccine candidate will enable the world to get back to work fearlessly as soon as possible,” he said.
Refana president Dr Phillip Schwartz said “Refana and its international network of scientific researchers and practitioners are dedicated to finding practical solutions to complex and urgent global medical problems. We are grateful for the input we have obtained from dozens of medical scientists and epidemiologists in more than a dozen countries in this unprecedented worldwide collaboration to end Covid-19. Our partnership with Panacea Biotec brings this dream to a practical realization with the ability to manufacture 500 million Covid-19 vaccines over 12 months.”
Refana said that proven models of viral pathogenesis and parallel conduct of multiple pre-clinical and clinical studies will accelerate vaccine development. “We are very excited to combine this approach with Panacea Biotec’s world class technology, development and production capabilities.”
This collaboration brings together the Panacea Biotec’s expertise in vaccinology, Rand D, manufacturing and distribution capabilities with Refana’s Scientific team’s strong ability to work on complex challenges through innovative technologies, the release said.
Panacea Biotec is an innovation-led biopharmaceutical group that focuses on discovery, development, and commercialisation of prescription medicines primarily, focusing on Vaccines, Diabetes, Transplant, Gastroenterology, and Oncology. Rafana Inc., is United States registered private corporation dedicated to finding practical and innovative solutions to the world’s medical problems.
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