Touchlight, a CDMO specialising in enzymatic DNA production, has entered into a R&D agreement with the University of Nottingham to develop a vaccine for the zika virus.
The company will provide a clinical supply of its dbDNA, which aims to develop a next-generation DNA vaccine targeting the virus.
Currently, the University is leading the development of the vaccine, which — according to the institution — can be manufactured in weeks and deployed globally in the event of a potential pandemic.
The project will use a synthetic manufacturing protocol rather than traditional bacterial fermentation, which can reduce the development time to 6 weeks, according to the University.
DNA vaccines can also be produced in a cost-effective manner, while also not requiring cold-chain storage like mRNA vaccines.
This also has significant benefits when rolling out vaccines in less economically developed regions, as remote regions may not have access to the infrastructure allowing cold-chain distribution.
The project has been funded by the UK's Department of Health and Social Care under the UK's Vaccine network.
Dr James Dixon, a professor at the School of Pharmacy at Nottingham University, commented: “The Touchlight technology has enabled us to make rapid progress and will make it possible to produce large quantities of the DNA vaccine at speed which is vital in pandemic prevention and our response to deployment of vaccines in the developing world and globally. It will be hugely exciting to complete the pre-clinical trials and take us into the final stages with clinical trials and seeing real-world impact.”
Touchllight's CEO,Tommy Duncan, remarked: “We are thrilled to support the University of Nottingham with our innovative dbDNA technology in the development of a Zika virus DNA vaccine. We are committed to enabling developers of DNA vaccines by providing rapid, high purity DNA for vaccines against emerging pathogens.”