Akers Biosciences & Premas Biotech Announce Successful Completion of COVID-19 Vaccine Prototype & Obtained First Images of VLP
Akers Biosciences, Inc. recently announced that Premas Biotech, its partner in the development of a vaccine candidate that is seeking to address the COVID-19 pandemic, has successfully completed its vaccine prototype. Premas obtained transmission electron microscopic (TEM) images of the recombinant virus like particle (VLP) assembled in yeast during the past week which marks a significant milestone and is believed by Premas to be one of the first in the world for VLP of SARS-CoV-2 virus. Premas, which is primarily responsible for the development of the vaccine candidate through proof-of-concept, is collating data at this time and, collectively with Akers, moving forward with conversations with regulatory authorities in India and continuing to develop a regulatory strategy in the United States. A manufacturing protocol has also been established and large-scale production studies have been initiated for the vaccine candidate.
Prabuddha Kundu, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Premas Biotech, said “We are delighted to announce the three protein VLP formation as confirmed from the TEM images and other orthogonal analysis that have captured the distinct structural features of the VLP. The vaccine candidate is based on the three COVID-19 proteins; Spike, Envelope, and Membrane. We believe that this combination of three proteins distinguishes us from other companies seeking to develop COVID-19 vaccines and makes the VLP promising as we work to proceed into preclinical trials.”
Christopher Schreiber, Executive Chairman of Akers, added “We are encouraged by the recent progress made with Premas. As our next step, we will present our findings to regulatory authorities with the intent of initiating preclinical trials this summer. We will keep shareholders informed as we proceed through our milestones.”
Premas Biotech develops novel technologies and partners with global biopharmaceutical companies to build and develop novel biotherapeutic and vaccine candidates. Premas’ key focus areas are infectious diseases, cancer, metabolic disorders, and inflammation. In addition to D-Crypt, the difficult-to-express proteins expression platform, Premas’ leading technologies include Axtex-4D: an ex-vivo tissueoid generation platform and C-Qwence: a fully human naive India based scFv antibody library. For more information, visit www.premasbiotech.com.
Akers Biosciences is pursuing the development of a newly acquired license to a coronavirus vaccine candidate. In addition, the company develops, manufactures, and supplies rapid, point-of-care screening and testing products designed to bring health-related information directly to the patient or clinician in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Akers has previously announced that that it had identified the hemp and minor cannabinoid sectors as promising adjacent opportunities that could benefit from Akers’ existing facility and its core competencies. For more information, visit www.akersbio.com.
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