Coronavirus: GlaxoSmithKline backs Aussie team in race for vaccine

Australian scientists have been bolstered in their efforts to create a coronavirus vaccine.

Australian scientists have been bolstered in their efforts to create a coronavirus vaccine, with a multinational drug company moving to supply a pharmacological agent that promises to boost the human immune response to any potential vaccine.

British pharma major GlaxoSmithKline has entered into a collaboration with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to make its established pandemic vaccine adjuvant platform technology available to help in the race for a coronavirus vaccine. CEPI has asked scientists from the University of Queensland to develop a vaccine for coronavirus, and will gain access to the GSK adjuvant under the deal.

The head of UQ’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, Paul Young, said the deal would be a major boost in efforts to create a vaccine.

Professor Young and his team are working to generate the protein for a vaccine, with testing in animals to follow.

“With any protein vaccine, in their own right they don’t strongly induce an immune response,” Professor Young said. “And so all of these types of vaccines, which are called sub-unit vaccines, require a booster.

“That’s what an adjuvant is, it’s a booster to the immune response. And so what GSK are offering us is the opportunity of using a tried and tested adjuvant in our pre-clinical studies.

“That will be a significant help to us. Adjuvants are absolutely required and having access to a well-known pharmaceutical-derived adjuvant is a huge plus.”

Professor Young said it was not yet known whether the GSK deal would speed up the timeline for creating a vaccine. The scientists’ goal is to have a vaccine ready in six months.

“It’s really impossible to say whether it will speed up the process but what it will allow us to do is to progress because we need that adjuvant,” Professor Young said. “Our timeline already includes the addition of some adjuvant but what this will do is significantly de-risk the path forward to development of that vaccine, because these particular adjuvants already have a well-documented record of success with other sub-unit vaccines.”

CEPI chief executive Richard Hatchett said the deal with GSK was a breakthrough.

“Gaining access to GSK’s world-leading adjuvant technology is a huge step forward in developing a vaccine,” Dr Hatchett said.

The president of GSK Vaccines, Roger Connor, said the deal might be extended to other research partners.