By Sharon Atieno
Two companies, Batavia Biosciences and Valneva Sweden AB, have partnered to accelerate market-access of a low-cost inactivated polio vaccine (IPV).
The IPV vaccine is based on the Sabin vaccine strains (sIPV), which Batavia successfully obtained from the World Health Organization. Under the terms of the agreement, Valneva will manufacture the sIPV for clinical trial purposes in its GMP polio manufacturing facility operated under GAPIII polio containment in Solna, Sweden, using Batavia’s process.
“As a company focusing on high unmet medical needs, Valneva is proud to make another important contribution to polio eradication through this agreement with Batavia. Our site and team in Sweden has significant experience working with poliovirus. This new contract underscores Valneva’s technical expertise in clinical manufacturing and bio-risk management,” Thomas Lingelbach, CEO, Valneva, commented.
Batavia will remain responsible for release and supply of the GMP vaccine to the developing country vaccine manufacturers (DCVMs). The know-how generated will be made available to the DCVMs to facilitate transfer of the technology and manufacture of the vaccine under GAPIII conditions in the future.
“We are excited to be working with Valneva, who can leverage their GAPIII polio facility and polio know-how to accelerate the development of this important vaccine as well as offering an important step forward in the application of our HIP-Vax™ technology for vaccine manufacture,” added Chris Yallop, COO, Batavia Biosciences.
Polio affects mainly children under the age of five and can lead to paralysis or even death. Polio cases have decreased by 99% since 1988, from an estimated 355,000 cases to 33 reported cases in 2018.
IPV consists of inactivated (killed) poliovirus strains of all three poliovirus types. It produces antibodies in the blood to all types of poliovirus. In the event of infection, these antibodies prevent the spread of the virus to the central nervous system and protect against paralysis.
