Exclusive License for Croda to Commercialize SSI’s CAF® Vaccine Adjuvants

Croda International Plc, which uses smart science to improve lives, recently announces it has entered a strategic collaboration with Statens Serum Institut (SSI), the leading Danish Governmental life-science research institute.

Croda’s vaccine adjuvant specialists, based in Denmark, will exclusively manufacture, and commercialise CAF^®, a range of patented cationic adjuvants developed by SSI. Over the past decade, clinical trials have shown these to be powerful vaccine adjuvants.

Croda is continuously increasing its offering in innovative vaccine adjuvant systems and the strategic collaboration with SSI enables Croda to offer a new alternative to traditional aluminium-based adjuvants. This will provide new opportunities for the development of vaccines for diseases where effective vaccines have been unable to be developed, as well as more effective preventative and therapeutic vaccines for a range of diseases.

The collaboration encompasses manufacturing and commercialization of the two CAF^®-adjuvants, CAF^®01 and CAF^®09b, both of which are in clinical development:

CAF^®01 induces strong antibody and T cell responses. In vaccines for infectious diseases, results show it is also more effective in priming the immune system. The unique mechanism of this novel adjuvant is well-documented, with recent data suggesting that it is also capable of developing strong immune responses in newborns.

CAF^®09b is already in use within cancer immunotherapy trials, facilitating strong production of CD8 + T cells from vaccines.

This agreement will enable Croda to broaden its customer offering as well as the support and expertise it shares with research institutes and academics. It also takes the company closer to achieving its People Positive ambition to support the successful development and commercialization of 25% of World Health Organization listed pipeline vaccines.

Peter Tygesen, Managing Director of Croda Denmark, said “Together with Croda’s acquisition of Avanti Polar Lipids, this is another important step towards becoming a world leader in vaccine adjuvants. It will help us enhance our contribution to vaccine development and support our customers as they continue in their quest to find new and innovative vaccines against severe diseases in the world.”

Henrik Ullum, CEO of SSI, added “Croda is the ideal collaboration partner for our proprietary CAF^® adjuvants, with its extensive experience and focus on adjuvants Croda has become the global adjuvant power-house.”

Established in 1925, Croda is the name behind sustainable, high-performance ingredients and technologies in some of the world’s most successful brands: creating, making and selling speciality chemicals that are relied on by industries and consumers everywhere.

Croda is a FTSE 100 company with over 5,500 passionate and innovative employees, working across manufacturing sites and offices around the world with a shared Purpose to use Smart science to improve lives™.  As part of this Purpose, and with around two thirds of its organic raw materials already from bio-based sources, Croda has committed to be the most sustainable supplier of innovative ingredients, becoming Climate, Land and People Positive by 2030.

Part of the Life Sciences business, Croda Health Care is a long-established supplier of choice to the pharmaceutical, vaccine adjuvant, nutritional, consumer, and animal health markets. With a wide and constantly growing range of products, including high-performance excipients, vaccine adjuvants and solubilizers, the Health Care portfolio is unsurpassed in excellence. This offering, along with our in-house formulation expertise, helps Croda Health Care meet the most stringent customer demands and future health and wellbeing needs.