Eden Biodesign and iQur to Develop Vaccine for Hepatitis A and B

Eden Biodesign Ltd. (Liverpool, UK) and iQur Ltd. (Southampton, UK) have entered into an agreement to develop iQur’s tandem core vaccine for hepatitis A and B. Eden will develop a unique biomanufacturing process to achieve optimal product quality in line with cost of goods parameters before proceeding with clinical cGMP manufacture. The project to develop the vaccine also will involve a consortium of collaborators, including Arecor (Bedfordshire, UK), who will apply its proprietary protein stabilization technology, and Mologic (Bedford, UK), who will develop its novel yeast expression systems.

Research conducted by iQur has suggested that its novel vaccine platform, based on the HBV core protein, can carry antigens specific for both hepatitis A and B simultaneously. Because the construct is highly immunogenic, it should dramatically increase vaccine efficiency and reduce the current need for booster vaccinations, said Eden in a press release. The vaccine platform will also serve as a proof-of-concept for other combination vaccines.