03 February 2023 | News
Clinical trials to start for influenza vaccine candidate this year in Australia
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Biotech startup Mynvax, incubated at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, has developed an adjuvant subunit-based vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 which is now ready for pre-clinical trials.
During an interaction at the Genomics India Conference 2023, Dr Chakshusmathi Ghadiyaram, Head- Pre-clinical R&D, Mynvax said, "Myncov1003 is a novel COVID-19 vaccine, with its formulation stable at 40 degree celsius reaining 84% activity even after one month. Protein engineering and stabilisation techniques were used to design and develop a high yielding immunogenic receptor binding domain (RBD) variant of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein."
But considering the fact that COVID-19 vaccines might lose their relevance in the coming days, Mynvax is cuurently focusing on making the technology a success so that it can be utilised well in case of future pandemics.
On the other hand, the startup will be initiating the clinical trials of its influenza vaccine this year in Australia. "Mynflu001 is a novel seasonal influenza vaccine. It is a recombinant, tetravalent subunit vaccine that includes all the four WHO recommended northern hemisphere vaccine strains", said Dr Chakshusmathi.
Founded in 2017 by Dr Raghavan Varadarajan, Professor at IISc and Dr Gautham Nadig, an alumnus of the institute, Mynvax signed definitive agreements in 2021 to raise $4.2 million in its Series A funding round led by Accel, for bringing these novel vaccines to market.