HomeNewsBusinessCompaniesBiological E enters into pact to buy Dynavax's adjuvant for use in COVID-19 subunit vaccine

Biological E enters into pact to buy Dynavax's adjuvant for use in COVID-19 subunit vaccine

The agreement includes doses for delivery in 2021, which were manufactured under the previously announced funding agreement between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Dynavax. India entered into an advance purchase deal with BE to buy 30 crore doses.

July 06, 2021 / 18:02 IST
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Representative image
Representative image

Biological E (BE) and US biotech Dynavax on July 6 said they have entered into a commercial supply agreement for using Dynavax’s CpG 1018 Adjuvant for Biological E’s COVID-19 subunit vaccine candidate Corbevax.

An adjuvant is a critical component in a vaccine that boosts immune response.

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The commercial supply agreement extends through 2022.

The agreement includes doses for delivery in 2021, which were manufactured under the previously announced funding agreement between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Dynavax.

COVID-19 Vaccine
Frequently Asked Questions

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How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.
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