The European Commission have awarded a grant of EUR €7.7m to e-FabRIC for the development of an innovative broad-spectrum therapy, paving the way for a new generation of antiviral treatments enhancing pandemic preparedness.
Fabentech, a pharmaceutical-stage biotechnology company specialised in the development, production and marketing of polyclonal antibodies to answer emergency situations and to treat emerging infectious diseases, announces the launch of the e-FabRIC1 consortium.
This initiative unites top universities and European companies to bolster global health and preparedness.
The aim of this European project coordinated by Fabentech is to develop an innovative broadspectrum antiviral therapy to combat new emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential, particularly those caused by viruses in the Sarbecovirus family.
Considered to be one of the riskiest viruses, Sarbecoviruses are responsible for severe respiratory pathologies in humans, coupled with a high mortality rate and strong mutagenic capacities.
The Covid-19 crisis revealed the need for healthcare systems worldwide to be better prepared for potential future health emergencies.
Improving health protocols thus implies the development of European sovereignty in public health and the implementation of coordinated response mechanisms on a cross-border scale.
The Covid-19 crisis revealed the need for healthcare systems worldwide to be better prepared for potential future health emergencies
With a €7.7 million grant from the European Commission under the “Horizon Europe” program, the e-FabRIC consortium is part of the European Union’s drive to develop strategic and therapeutic solutions to respond to epidemic outbreaks caused by this specific family of viruses.
The funds granted to the consortium will be used to develop a new and innovative broad-spectrum immunotherapy treatment using the polyclonal antibody technology of Fabentech.
e-FabRIC will be the first European project to use this kind of approach to develop a treatment able to neutralise several viruses from the same family and their potential variants.
This therapy is based on mosaic antigen immunisation, allowing the large-scale production of multivalent antibodies capable of specifically targeting any virus from a given family — paving the way for the creation of a new generation of broad-spectrum antiviral treatments.
The consortium will initially focus on the development of a treatment addressing 8 highly pathogenic viruses of the Sarbecovirus family, identified as top priorities by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Using this broad-spectrum technology on high-pandemic-potential viruses like Sarbecoviruses anticipates the development of a fast, precise, and life-saving solutions before outbreaks, through treatment stockpiling to safeguard public health.
Fabentech will lead the project and collaborate on the development of this life-saving solution to improve pandemic preparedness and response with world-renowned European companies and research institutions such as the Cambridge University (UK), the Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp (Belgium), the Foundation for Biomedical Research of the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre in Madrid (Spain), Biotem (France), a company specialised in immune-technologies and the international public relations agency FIPRA (Belgium).
Sébastien Iva, Chief Executive Officer of Fabentech, comments: ”We are delighted to have been chosen by the European Commission to coordinate this ambitious European project, which is essential to the implementation of new preventive and therapeutic strategies to avoid the development of health crises similar to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
