CEPI, Clover Biopharmaceuticals expand partnership to develop COVID-19 vaccine booster

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) committed another $36.9 million to expand a contract with Clover Biopharmaceuticals and support the development of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, SCB-2019, for use as a booster.

The new injection of funding increases CEPI’s investment in the candidate to $397.4 million. It previously supported preclinical and clinical testing for the vaccine, and some of its funding will go into scaling up the manufacturing process.

“Clover appreciates the continued partnership with CEPI and their support for developing SCB-2019 (CpG 1018/Alum) as a potential COVID-19 booster vaccine,” Joshua Liang, CEO of Clover Biopharmaceuticals, said. “We believe that SCB-2019 (CpG 1018/Alum) is well-positioned to be evaluated as a universal COVID-19 booster vaccine, given the significant efficacy against variants as well as the favourable safety profile demonstrated in the Phase 2/3 SPECTRA trial. If successful, SCB-2019 (CpG 1018/Alum) could be an important tool to provide continued protection against COVID-19 for those most in need globally.”

The new funding from CEPI will go toward developing and evaluating SCB-2019 for primary vaccination across all age groups, as well as for use as a potential booster. Clover is presently planning multiple heterologous booster studies. Pending Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization (WHO), Clover also plans to supply up to 414 million vaccine doses to the COVAX Facility for requitable distribution worldwide.

“While multiple safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines are now available, we know that COVID-19 is here to stay, so further R&D is needed to inform vaccination strategies that will help control the virus in the long-term,” Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI, said. “I’m pleased to further expand CEPI’s R&D partnership with Clover, which will maximize the potential impact of this vaccine as we seek to protect those most at risk from COVID-19, wherever they are in the world.”