GSK plans to produces one billion doses of vaccine adjuvant for COVID-19

Company will support numerous vaccine candidates

GlaxoSmithKline has announced plans to produce one billion doses in 2021 of its vaccine adjuvant system to support numerous COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

GSK’s established pandemic vaccine adjuvant technology can reduce the amount of vaccine protein needed per dose, which in turns allows more vaccine doses to be produced. Vaccine adjuvants can also boost immune response and have demonstrated stronger and longer-lasting immunity against infections.

In February, GSK was one of the first pharma companies to join the fight against the novel coronavirus, when it announced a collaboration with the Coalition for the Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) in which it offered its adjuvant platform for the development of a vaccine.

The first agreement to formalise that collaboration was between GSK and the University of Queensland, which included access to the GSK adjuvant technology to support the early stage research of the potential coronavirus vaccine.

GSK has also partnered with China-based biotech company Clover Biopharmaceuticals on a protein-based coronavirus vaccine candidate, COVID-19 S-Trimer.

This partnership includes the provision of GSK’s pandemic adjuvant system for further evaluation of S-Trimer in pre-clinical studies, with the aim of rapidly scaling-up and producing large qualities of the potential vaccine.

“We believe that more than one vaccine will be needed to address this global pandemic and we are working with partners around the world to do so,” said Roger Connor, president of GSK Global Vaccines.

“We believe that our innovative pandemic adjuvant technology has the potential to help improve the efficacy and scale of multiple COVID-19 vaccines.

“With this significant expansion in our manufacturing capacity, we can help deliver up to 1 billion doses of adjuvanted vaccines through 2021, helping to protect many more people and support the global effort to fight COVID-19,” he added.

GSK added that it does not expect to generate profit from sales of its COVID-19 vaccine collaborations during this pandemic, as it plans to invest any profit generated back into coronavirus-related research and long-term pandemic preparedness.

According to a recent update from the World Health Organization, ten coronavirus vaccine candidates have reached the human testing stage, as drug developers race to develop a successful vaccine against the disease.