Duke-NUS and CoVBio Partner on Broad-Spectrum COVID-19 Vaccines

Duke-NUS Medical School has entered into a worldwide licensing agreement with Singapore-based startup CoVBio to develop broad-spectrum vaccines and therapeutic antibodies targeting COVID-19. The partnership aims to create protection against current and future coronavirus pandemics.

The agreement allows CoVBio to commercialize a novel technology developed by Professor Wang Linfa and his team at Duke-NUS. The research focuses on a consensus sequence designed to target not only SARS-CoV-2 and its variants but also animal coronaviruses with the potential to infect humans.

The scientific findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, indicated that antibodies from SARS survivors vaccinated with mRNA vaccines could neutralize known SARS-CoV-2 variants and animal sarbecoviruses. This forms the basis for the new vaccine candidates.

In addition to vaccines, the collaboration will also develop broad-spectrum therapeutic antibodies to provide further treatment options for severe cases. CoVBio is reportedly in discussions with major pharmaceutical companies to expedite market entry for these products.