QS-21DV from Desert King enables large-scale vaccine adjuvant production
The Vaccine Formulation Institute (VFI) and Seppic are pleased to announce that they are expanding their partnership to support the large-scale manufacturing and availability of a saponin-containing oil-in-water emulsion adjuvant designed for human prophylactic vaccines.
Developing safe, accessible, and effective vaccines remains a major Global Health challenge. Providing access to openly-available and affordable adjuvant technologies to all vaccine developers is a key response to this issue.
VFI, whose mission is to provide global access to adjuvant technologies and vaccine formulation expertise to vaccine developers worldwide, and Seppic, who develops, manufactures and supplies unique emulsion adjuvant technologies, initiated a collaboration in 2018 that led to the development and industrialization of Sepivac SWETM, the first open-access squalene oil-in-water adjuvant for human prophylactic vaccines.
Sepivac SWETM is now commercialized by Seppic and included in multiple clinical studies worldwide. Today, VFI and Seppic reaffirm their shared commitment to global access adjuvants and confirm the industrial-scale availability of SQ, an adjuvant developed by VFI and based on the combination of a squalene oil-in-water emulsion, Sepivac™ SWE-C, industrially manufactured by Seppic and the QS-21DV saponin, produced by Desert King International.
SQ is currently available from VFI at GMP grade for evaluation in preclinical and clinical studies. This new advance in the strategic alliance between VFI and Seppic will contribute to large-scale, global availability of SQ adjuvant for the development of commercial vaccines.
Saponin-containing adjuvants have been shown to be instrumental in the development and success of new vaccines, in particular towards diseases of Global Health importance, such as Malaria or Tuberculosis, which makes this development a path to innovation for the future of healthcare.
Nicolas Collin, VFI Co-founder and CEO, explained: “The broad access to safe and efficacious adjuvants is still a major issue for vaccine developers worldwide. Partnering with Seppic and Desert King International will support the large-scale availability in open-access of VFI’s SQ adjuvant, and the development of new vaccines for Global Health.”
Hannes Moeller, Managing Director of Seppic, stated: “With this new development, Seppic is strengthening the strategic partnership it began several years ago with VFI. By putting our innovation and industrial capabilities at the service of the vaccine community, including a GMP production unit dedicated to vaccine adjuvants, we aim at contributing to advancing the health of everyone, everywhere.”
