A Q2 Solutions Co., Ltd. lab facility in Beijing, China, became the first East Asian lab to join the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations’ (CEPI) centralized COVID-19 lab network this week.
“I am delighted to today welcome Q2 Solutions’ facility in Beijing to this group of dedicated testing partners,” Melanie Saville, director of Vaccine R&D at CEPI, said. “Through this work, we hope to welcome more COVID-19 vaccine developers within China and East Asia to use our service to assess their candidates. Their work will also support our ultimate goal, across the network, to identify the most promising COVID-19 vaccines to alleviate the global suffering brought on by this devastating pandemic.”
With this addition, CEPI now hosts 11 labs in its network for vaccine developers to utilize and minimize variation in the assessment of COVID-19 vaccine candidates and standardize the evaluation of such candidates.
The Q2 facility in Beijing will utilize the same methods and reagents as other labs supported by CEPI in its efforts to measure and compare the type of immune responses and capabilities that COVID-19 vaccines can generate over time. Traditionally, evaluation puts the immune response of a vaccine candidate under assessment through different tools and measurements at individual testing sites. This would allow for variability between labs — something CEPI hopes to eliminate through its centralized, standardized approach.
More than 45 developers have used the network so far, offering more than 15,000 clinical trial samples for testing. Data obtained therein can help them to assess their own candidates’ potential for trial advancement and regulatory decisions but could also help CEPI to advance its larger COVID-19 vaccine portfolio through quicker, more accurate evaluation of candidates.
“We are very excited to expand our global capabilities to support the CEPI network with the addition of a second Q2 Solutions Laboratory facility, located in China,” Brian O’Dwyer, Q2 Solutions CEO, said. A separate U.S.-based Q2 lab joined the network last year. “Our Beijing laboratory has been actively supporting large vaccine trials, and we look forward to bringing that experience, knowledge, and capability to the CEPI network. The addition of vaccine assays in partnership with CEPI will further enhance our vaccine franchise globally and locally.”
The CEPI centralized lab network is open to all COVID-19 vaccine developers, whether funded by the organization or not. It can be utilized free — save for shipping charges — to analyze vaccine clinical trial samples up to Phase III studies.