ZURICH (Reuters) – Privately held Batavia Biosciences said on Tuesday it is working with Swiss start-up Swiss Rockets AG on an investigational COVID-19 vaccine that both companies hope to begin testing in humans next year.
“Batavia will collaborate…to develop a clinical process able to rapidly deliver 1,000 doses of material for clinical trials,” Chris Yallop, chief operating officer and founder of Leiden, Netherlands-based Batavia, said in a statement.
“After successful completion, we will continue to scale-up and optimise the process for commercial scale,” he added.
Swiss Rockets has won about 1 million Swiss francs ($1.1 million) in public funding for its RocketVax subsidiary to help develop its vaccine candidate in cooperation with Basel University Hospital, the University of Basel and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, the company has said.
The Dutch biotechnology contract manufacturer is due to develop the clinical process and deliver the clinical product of RocketVax’s vaccine candidate. The Swiss company said further partnerships are planned, to help advance its vaccine candidate quickly.
($1 = 0.9228 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
