Can an Animal Vaccine Developer be the One to Tame Covid-19? MBF Therapeutics Places its Bet

MBF Therapeutics, which to date has focused on developing DNA-based vaccines for animals, said Thursday it has formed a collaboration with four life science industry partners to work on a Covid-19 vaccine for humans.

The collaboration with MRIGlobal, Rymedi, SSI Strategy and Aldevron will seek to advance MBF Therapeutics’ SARS CoV-2 vaccine candidate COVE-001. Financial terms of the partnership are being kept confidential.

“Our goal is a better long-term solution to the current global pandemic,” said Thomas Tillett, CEO of Ambler-based MBF Therapeutics.

Under the collaboration, MRIGlobal of Kansas City, Missouri, will be responsible for pre-clinical testing; Rymedi of Greenville, South Carolina, will provide use of its integrated data and diagnostics platform; SSI Strategy of Parsippany, New Jersey, will handle clinical development planning and project management of the investigation new drug application process; and Aldevron of Fargo, North Dakota, will be in charge of DNA vaccine formulation, scale-up and manufacturing.

MBF Therapeutics, according to Tillet, was the first company to develop an animal health vaccine using gene-based checkpoint inhibitors, which are a type of immunotherapy designed to improve the immune system’s response to infectious disease.

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