Blue Water to Partner on Development of Novel Monkeypox and Marburg Vaccine

 Blue Water Vaccines Inc. (“BWV” or “Blue Water Vaccines” or the “Company”), a biopharmaceutical company developing transformational vaccines to address significant global health challenges, today announced a collaboration with AbVacc, Inc. (“AbVacc”) for the joint development of vaccine candidates targeting monkeypox and Marburg virus disease (“MVD”).

Both candidate vaccines will utilize BWV’s norovirus shell and protrusion (“S&P”) virus-like particle (“VLP”) platform, which allows for the presentation of multiple antigens on the surface of either the S or P particle of a norovirus backbone. BWV previously announced plans to explore a novel monkeypox vaccine candidate using this platform and under this agreement, AbVacc & BWV plan to work collaboratively to optimize the vaccine design and conduct preclinical immunogenicity and efficacy studies. In addition to monkeypox vaccine development, AbVacc will utilize its extensive expertise in MVD to develop a novel vaccine targeting Marburg virus using BWV’s VLP platform.

AbVacc, a recent spin-off of Integrated BioTherapeutics Inc. (“IBT”) developing rationally designed vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, is currently developing a monoclonal antibody for treatment of MVD, IBT-T03, with discovery and preclinical development supported by multiple government grants. In May 2021, IBT was awarded a $16.3M contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to support manufacturing and a Phase 1 clinical trial for IBT-T03H. Leveraging this background in MVD, AbVacc & BWV will seek to identify Marburg antigens to be presented within BWV’s VLP platform and optimize a potential vaccine candidate.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blue-water-vaccines-announces-partnership-141500690.html