Cytovance Biologics, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and a subsidiary of the Shenzhen Hepalink Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., has entered into a collaboration agreement with Akshaya Bio, a Canadian development stage biotechnology company to provide rapid access to clinical materials using Akshaya’s proprietary Chimigen Platform Technology for vaccine development for COVID-19 and HBV.
 
“Cytovance is driven to leverage innovative solutions and superior technologies to help advance vaccine development efforts for infectious diseases including COVID-19,” said Jesse McCool, chief executive officer, Cytovance Biologics. “Our scientists are deeply passionate about helping drug companies succeed in the highly complex clinical development arena. I am excited to report that tech transfer activities have begun between Cytovance and Akshaya Bio in order to install their cutting-edge production technologies right here in our Oklahoma City facilities.”
 
April Stanley, associate director of open innovation, Cytovance, said, “Our Open Innovation program has a primary focus of bringing new and state-of-the-art technology into our company. This collaboration with Akshaya is a great example of our commitment to innovation. Our team of scientists are excited for this opportunity that has the potential to help people all over the world. We, too, are worried about the COVID-19 pandemic and with our mix of manufacturing capabilities and scientific community, this is our unique way to contribute to solving the problem.”
 
The companies will focus on using Akshaya’s proprietary Chimigen Platform Technology to execute bulk drug products of both COVID-19 and HBV vaccines to be used in Phase I clinical trials. Akshaya utilizes the Chimigen Platform to develop therapeutic vaccines for patients with chronic viral infections as well as prophylactic vaccines to prevent infections. Cytovance will scale-up production using its GMP insect cell microbial manufacturing platform for evaluation of the Chimigen technology in humans for SARS CoV-2 coronavirus and chronic hepatitis B.
 
“We are very excited to be working with Cytovance Biologics,” said Eric Shi of Akshaya Bio. “We truly believe our unique vaccine technology and vaccine products for HBV and COVID-19 will benefit from this partnership as our platform models align beautifully with Cytovance. They not only provide excellent CDMO services, but also simplify co-development with a deep understanding of our innovative vaccine technology.”