Gritstone Oncology, Inc. Advances Development of Second Generation Vaccine Against SARS-CoV-2
January 19, 2021 at 04:30 pm IST
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Gritstone Oncology, Inc. announced that it is advancing development of a second generation vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, with potential for both prolonged protection and potency against Spike mutants. Gritstone and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have entered into a clinical trial agreement to initiate clinical testing. A Phase 1 clinical trial, expected to be conducted through the NIAID-supported Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium (IDCRC), is in development. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Gates Foundation) is supporting the preclinical evaluation of the vaccine. Through a license agreement with the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), one of the leading global organizations dedicated to studying the immune system, Gritstone has access to validated SARS-CoV-2 epitopes that have been identified through LJI’s studies of hundreds of patients recovering from COVID-19. Using these epitopes and the company’s proprietary Gritstone EDGETM and vaccine platform technologies, Gritstone is developing a novel vaccine against COVID-19, containing Spike (similar to first generation vaccines) but also additional viral epitopes that offer good targets for T cell immunity. Gritstone uses both self-amplifying mRNA and adenoviral vectors to deliver the SARS-CoV-2 viral antigens. The vaccine may have pan-SARS/coronavirus potential to protect against future coronavirus pandemics. The company has received a grant from the Gates Foundation to support the preclinical evaluation of the vaccine. NIAID is supporting development of the Phase 1 clinical trial through the IDCRC.
Gritstone bio, Inc. is a biotechnology company. The Company discovers, develops, manufactures and delivers next generation cancer and infectious disease immunotherapy candidates. It has developed two vectors that it deploys with the aim of eliciting the desired immune response: self-amplifying mRNA (samRNA) and chimpanzee adenovirus (ChAd). Its two oncology programs in clinical-stage development are GRANITE, individualized neoantigen-based immunotherapy, and SLATE, an off-the-shelf shared neoantigen-based immunotherapy. It has an infectious disease pipeline, which includes two programs in clinical-stage development: CORAL, a second-generation COVID-19 vaccine program that may have pan-coronavirus potential to protect against future coronavirus pandemics, and an HIV therapeutic/cure vaccine candidate. In oncology, it develops personalized vaccines that aim to destroy tumors through CD8+ (killer) T cell recognition of tumor cells by virtue of their surface display of neoantigens.
GRITSTONE BIO, INC. 
