Open Orphan signs UK government contract for COVID-19 Human Challenge Study model

Open Orphan plc (LON:ORPH), a rapidly growing specialist CRO pharmaceutical services company, which is the world leader in the testing of vaccines and antivirals using human challenge studies, has announced the signing of a contract by hVIVO, a subsidiary of Open Orphan, with the UK Government to develop a COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) human challenge study model. The model development involves the manufacture of the challenge virus and the first-in-human characterisation study for this virus. The contract starts immediately and could be worth approximately £10 million to hVIVO depending upon the final number of volunteers that are included in the characterisation study. In addition, the Government has secured the first three slots to test vaccines using hVIVO’s COVID-19 challenge study, which we expect start in 2021, each slot reservation has been secured at a cost of £2.5m each bringing the total value of these slot reservations to £7.5m.

The characterisation study, which is expected to complete in May 2021 and will require regulatory and ethical approval, enables identification of the most appropriate dose of the challenge virus for use in future human challenge studies which play a vital role in helping to develop vaccines and antivirals for infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

The study will be sponsored by Imperial College London and conducted by hVIVO at The Royal Free Hospital’s specialist research unit in London, under the scrutiny of highly trained scientists and medics. hVIVO will also be expanding its Clinical Operations in London to facilitate work at this site. hVIVO’s state of the art, category 2 facility at Queen Mary’s Bioenterprise Centre, London, will continue to be used to deliver the Company’s traditional challenge study contracts, particularly respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and is booked to maximum capacity until Summer 2021.

hVIVO has a long history of successfully delivering human challenge studies. The Company, formerly called Retroscreen Virology, was originally established in 1989 as a spin out from Queen Mary University, London. Prior to this hVIVO’s founders worked at the common cold unit at Harvard Hospital, near Salisbury. The Salisbury Flu Clinic, as it is more commonly known, has a history of running human challenge studies since 1945. hVIVO has the world’s leading portfolio of 8 human challenge study models developed to date and has safely run more human challenge studies than any other company globally. The expertise built up over this long history underpins hVIVO position as the market leader in the provision of human challenge studies.

If you are interested in being contacted and provided with details about future COVID-19 human challenge study research, please leave your contact details at www.UKCovidChallenge.com.

Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman, Open Orphan, said:

“At Open Orphan we are pleased to be working on behalf of the UK Government and in partnership with two great institutions, Imperial College London and The Royal Free Hospital. We look forward to working with our partners to develop a COVID-19 human challenge study model which will be used to safely accelerate the discovery of effective vaccines and antivirals against COVID-19.

“We hope our work will reduce the impact of COVID-19 on individuals and communities, and our thoughts go out to the many people whose lives have been affected by the pandemic.”

Alok Sharma, Business Secretary, UK Government, said:

“We are doing everything we can to fight coronavirus, including backing our best and brightest scientists and researchers in their hunt for a safe and effective vaccine. 

“The funding announced today for these ground-breaking but carefully controlled studies marks an important next step in building on our understanding of the virus and accelerating the development of our most promising vaccines which will ultimately help in beginning our return to normal life.”

Conference call for sell-side analysts and investors

The Company will hold a conference call for sell-side analysts and investors at 11:00 Thursday 22nd of October. Details for the conference call can be found at: https://www.speakservecloud.com/register-for-call/ecd1cd54-503e-4be0-8f00-3d0a0f92b6a1 

Click to view all articles for the EPIC:
Or click to view the full company profile:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Open Orphan PLC

More articles like this

Open Orphan Plc

Open Orphan appoints Yamin ‘Mo’ Khan as Chief Executive Officer

Open Orphan plc (LON:ORPH), a rapidly growing specialist contract research organisation (CRO) and world leader in testing infectious and respiratory disease products using human challenge clinical trials, announced today the appointment of Yamin ‘Mo’ Khan as Chief Executive Officer

Open Orphan Plc

Potential RSV vaccine achieves regulatory step in US

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted breakthrough therapy designation for a vaccine candidate for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Bavarian Nordic’s MVA-BN RSV was granted the designation, which is designed to expedite the development

Open Orphan Plc

Open Orphan FDA Breakthrough Designation for Big Pharma RSV candidate

Open Orphan plc (LON:ORPH), a rapidly growing specialist contract research organisation (CRO) and world leader in testing infectious and respiratory disease products using human challenge clinical trials, noted today the announcement dated 14 February 2022 from Bavarian Nordic A/S (OMX: BAVA), reporting

Open Orphan Plc

The Drug development plan – Your roadmap to success

Each journey begins at a starting point, and we believe that few journeys are as exciting as developing a drug. In order to succeed and reach your destination, you need a solid roadmap, the drug development

Open Orphan Plc

Open Orphan launch STRiVE project a remarkable success

Open Orphan plc (LON:ORPH), a rapidly growing specialist contract research organisation (CRO) and world leader in testing infectious and respiratory disease products using human challenge clinical trials, announces that hVIVO, a subsidiary of Open Orphan plc, has recently launched

Open Orphan Plc

What is malaria?

Malaria is often quoted as the most common disease in all human history. With the earliest recorded cases are estimated to have been around 10,000 years ago, when a small plasmodium parasite made a jump across

Open Orphan Plc

Omicron and Long COVID: What we know so far

As the Omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to sweep across the United States, another important question has emerged for scientists worldwide: Will more transmission equal more long COVID cases? The rate of hospitalization has also

Open Orphan Plc

Pharmacokinetics Course

Pharmacokinetics (PK) is generally referred to as ‘what the body does to the drug’ versus ‘what the drug does to the body’ (pharmacodynamics [PD]). Pharmacokinetics describes the fate, or time course, of an administered drug within

Open Orphan Plc

Open Orphan launch new malaria human challenge

Open Orphan plc (LON:ORPH), a rapidly growing specialist contract research organisation (CRO) and world leader in vaccine and antiviral testing using human challenge clinical trials announces that further to the announcement on 9 August 2021, hVIVO, a subsidiary

Open Orphan Plc

RSV vaccines & treatments

The Challenge Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the single most important cause of lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) in infants and young children worldwide and can cause LRTI in elderly and immunocompromised patients; it is associated

Open Orphan Plc

FluCamp 2021 Year in Review

Open Orphan (LON:ORPH) was founded in 2017, with the goal of rapidly building Europe’s leading pharma services company by a management team with extensive industry and financial expertise. The company comprises of two commercial specialist CRO