SGS has entered into collaboration with Bavarian Nordic A/S, an international biotechnology company specializing in vaccines, to develop a new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) challenge strain. This will assist with the advancement of a universal vaccine candidate designed to induce protective immune responses against both subtypes (A & B) of RSV.

The project will build upon the results of phase II trials undertaken by Bavarian Nordic, and will include a human challenge study, which will be carried out at the SGS Clinical Pharmacology Unit in Antwerp, Belgium, using the new RSV challenge strain, once it has been fully developed and validated.
 
“This partnership combines expertise from both companies with a view to bring a truly life changing therapy to the market. SGS’s experience in both virus development, and in conducting human challenge trials safely and to exacting standards provides the potential to gain efficacy data concerning the vaccine prior to initiating a phase III study,” said Adrian Wildfire, project director, infectious diseases and human challenge unit, SGS.
 
The collaboration comes after SGS’s success in the development of a novel GMP-manufactured, non-hemagglutinating, wild-type strain of Influenza A H3N2 (A/Belgium/4217/2015) which is approved for use as a challenge agent in studies demonstrating the early efficacy of influenza drugs and vaccines in healthy volunteers.