Dyadic Announces Strategic Partnership Agreement to Develop Affordable Rabies Prophylactics & Vaccines Using its Proprietary C1 Cell Microbial Protein Production Platform

Dyadic International, Inc. recently announced its Dutch subsidiary, Dyadic Nederland BV has entered into a strategic partnership agreement and collaboration with Rabian BV, a Dutch innovative SME founded by experienced entrepreneurs and vaccine scientists. The aim is to develop highly efficacious, scalable, and affordable rabies prophylactics and vaccines utilizing Dyadic’s C1 protein production platform. This collaboration seeks to address the global burden of rabies, a disease that annually claims tens of thousands of lives.

Awarded by Eurostars for the AVATAR project, a part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs, and co-funded by the European Union through Horizon Europe. Rabian will use the total funding of approximately Є 1.7 million leveraging its expertise in virology to develop a rabies vaccine using Dyadic’s C1 protein production platform to tackle the challenges posed by rabies, particularly in lower- and middle-income countries. As per the strategic partnership agreement, Dyadic will receive an equity stake in, fully funded research and development costs, and specified product milestones and royalties upon commercialization.

Mark Emalfarb, Dyadic’s Chief Executive Officer, said “I am excited to be able to continue our long relationship with Rabian’s scientists in their mission to provide affordable vaccines and prophylactics for Lower- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC), as well as to expand potential opportunities for human health commercial traveler products using Dyadic’s proprietary C1 platform. Rabies kills thousands each year and we welcome the opportunity to address this terrible human health issue with such a capable partner.”

Drs. Carine Punt, CEO of Rabian, emphasized the extensive collaboration between Rabian’s scientists and Dyadic spanning nearly a decade with projects such as the EU-funded Zoonosis Anticipation Preparedness Initiative (ZAPI) and pre-clinical vaccine development for diseases like rabies and COVID-19. Drs. Punt highlighted the potential of combining advances in vaccinology with Dyadic’s C1 protein production platform to accelerate research, enhance product development, and lower manufacturing costs.

Drs. Punt underscored the ongoing threat of rabies to human lives, especially in resource-poor communities, and emphasized the importance of making preventive vaccination more widely available, particularly for travelers to endemic areas. Despite the availability of preventive vaccination and post-exposure treatment, rabies continues to claim thousands of lives annually, with the highest incidence in LMICs. Drs. Punt highlighted the need for concerted efforts to combat rabies and ensure its prevention through accessible and cost-effective vaccination strategies.

Rabian BV is an innovative Dutch SME in the field of infectious diseases, founded in 2023 by a multi-disciplinary team of seasoned entrepreneurs and world-leading scientists with a broad background in immunology, virology, and commercialization. It is our mission to develop cost-effective vaccines and post-exposure treatments of diseases with endemic and pandemic potential. Rabian aims to become a leading developer of cost-effective vaccine and prophylactic therapies of endemic infectious diseases.

Dyadic International, Inc. is a global biotechnology company focused on building innovative microbial platforms to address the growing demand for global protein bioproduction and unmet clinical needs for effective, affordable, and accessible biopharmaceutical products and alternative proteins for human and animal health.

Dyadic’s gene expression and protein production platforms are based on the highly productive and scalable fungus Thermothelomyces heterothallica (formerly Myceliophthora thermophila). Our lead technology, C1-cell protein production platform, is based on an industrially proven microorganism (named C1), which is currently used to speed development, lower production costs, and improve performance of biologic vaccines and drugs at flexible commercial scales for the human and animal health markets. Dyadic has also developed the Dapibus™ filamentous fungal based microbial protein production platform to enable the rapid development and large-scale manufacture of low-cost proteins, metabolites, and other biologic products for use in non-pharmaceutical applications, such as food, nutrition, and wellness.

With a passion to enable our partners and collaborators to develop effective preventative and therapeutic treatments in both developed and emerging countries, Dyadic is building an active pipeline by advancing its proprietary microbial platform technologies, including our lead asset DYAI-100 COVID-19 vaccine candidate, as well as other biologic vaccines, antibodies, and other biological products. For more information, visit https://www.dyadic.com.