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Dyadic Joins Race to Have Covid-19 Vaccines Produced in Africa

Syringes containing a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine ready for administration at the Atzavara nursing home in Catalunya, Spain, on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. On Monday, Spain became the fourth European country to record more than 50,000 coronavirus deaths.

(Bloomberg) --Dyadic International Inc., a U.S. biotechnology company, has joined the race to produce Covid-19 vaccines in Africa, the least-vaccinated continent.

By Monique Vanek
Jul 28, 2021, 8:48 PM
Word Count: 324

The Jupiter, Florida-based company on Tuesday announced a technology transfer and licensing deal with South Africa’s Rubic Consortium, a newly formed group that includes, Mathews Phosa, a former treasurer-general of the country’s ruling African National Congress.

In October or November Dyadic may begin an early-stage trial for the company’s coronavirus vaccine candidate after applying to the local health regulator for approval, said Shabir Madhi, a vaccinologist at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, which is partnering Rubic. Dyadic’s technology may later be used to develop other vaccines and treatments, he said.

“The bigger attraction of the platform is to be able to develop vaccines as well as monoclonal antibodies against other diseases,” said Madhi in an interview on Wednesday.

Dyadic’s entry into South Africa, the continent’s most developed economy, sees it join ImmunityBio Inc., part-owned by biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, in planning to have Covid-19 vaccines manufactured in the country. Pfizer Inc. has agreed to have its vaccine made by the Cape Town-based Biovac Institute, but will supply the inoculation’s ingredients in a similar deal to that between Johnson & Johnson and Durban, South Africa-based Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd.

“You need multiple role players in that space or else you are putting all your eggs in one basket,” said Madhi, who has led Covid-19 shot trials for AstraZeneca Plc and Novavax Inc. in South Africa.

Rubic will have the right to manufacture vaccines using Dyadic’s C1-cell protein production platform in South Africa and to sell them to other African countries.

Should the early-stage trial be successful, Rubic will be responsible for the costs of a mid-stage trial.

To date just 1.4% of Africa’s 1.2 billion people have been fully vaccinated.

 

Read More:
Billionaire Soon-Shiong Sees His Shot as a Universal Booster
Pfizer Partners With Biovac to Boost Africa’s Vaccine Supply
© 2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Information pertaining to Covid-19, vaccines, how to control the spread of the virus and potential treatments is ever-changing. Under the South African Disaster Management Act Regulation 11(5)(c) it is prohibited to publish information through any medium with the intention to deceive people on government measures to address COVID-19. We are therefore disabling the comment section on this article in order to protect both the commenting member and ourselves from potential liability. Should you have additional information that you think we should know, please email [email protected]
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