Cobra Biologics is working as part of a consortium led by The Jenner Institute, Oxford University, to develop, scale-up and produce the potential adenoviral vaccine candidate ChAdOx1 nCov-19 (ChAdOx1), for fast-tracked clinical trials for COVID-19. ChAdOx1 is one of five frontrunner vaccines in development around the world, and expected to be the UK’s first COVID-19 vaccine. The ChAdOx1 consortium also includes the University of Oxford Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility, the Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC), Advent Srl, Pall Life Sciences and Halix BV.
The ChAdOx1 consortium is currently recruiting individuals from a range of ages in the UK to trial the vaccine’s efficacy in April 2020 – a crucial step in the vaccine’s development. Cobra is actively planning for a fast set-up phase to facilitate the efficient production of a GMP working cell bank and then 200-L GMP viral vaccine. The consortium partners expect to develop and manufacture the vaccine candidate in multiple batches, to support a one million-dose scale batch size, by summer 2020.
Developed at the Jenner Institute, ChAdOx1 is one of the most promising vaccine technologies for COVID-19 as it can generate a strong immune response from one dose. The vaccine candidate allows it to be given safely to vulnerable members of the public, including children, the elderly and those with a pre-existing condition such as diabetes.