Baylor College of Medicine in the US and Hyderabad based Biological E. Limited have announced a licensing agreement for the development of a safe, effective and affordable COVID-19 vaccine.  

BE has licensed the recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed at Baylor. The company engaged in license negotiations with the BCM Ventures team, part of Baylor College of Medicine, after initial discussions on Baylor’s technology and how it could possibly inform a vaccine to address the current global pandemic.

The company will leverage its past experience for the further development and commercialization of the vaccine candidate, which currently is produced using a proven yeast-based expression technology.

The current focus is on transfer of the technology for BE to initiate scale-up of the manufacturing process and undertake further development of the vaccine candidate.

“BE is pleased to be a part of the global scientific effort aimed at exploring ways to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The partnership with Baylor would help accelerate the development of an affordable vaccine, especially for India and other low- and middle-income nations,” said Mahima Datla, managing director of BE.

“We look forward to leveraging our capabilities for the development and manufacturing of this much needed vaccine. If the vaccine development is successful, we expect to make several hundred million doses of the vaccine available annually,” said Narender Dev Mantena, director of BioE Holdings Inc., who heads BE’s novel vaccine initiative.