BiondVax leases site for universal flu vaccine plant in Israel
The facility, which will be built is at a site at the Jerusalem BioPark in Israel, is intended to make commercial supplies of the vaccine if it goes on to be approved. The lease is for an initial period of10 years.
Construction of the facility will be partly supported by a grant from Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry and a €20m ($22m) loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) that BiondVax secured last month.
M-001 is designed to protect against both seasonal and pandemic flu strains. It consists of nine widely conserved influenza epitopes chosen to allow it to protect against a wide range of viruses.
BiondVax plans to move the vaccine into Phase III, although it has not said when.
In 2015, the firm contracted Cytovance Biologics to help it scale up the manufacturing process used to produce the vaccine for clinical trials.
