Themis, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, and ABL Europe (ABL), a global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and contract research organization (CRO), have signed an agreement under which ABL will manufacture Themis' vaccine candidate in preparation for clinical trials. The vaccine is being developed using a proprietary measles virus vaccine platform technology, which is licensed exclusively to Themis by the world-renowned Institut Pasteur in Paris.
 
"The key elements behind our decision to partner with ABL Europe are our past experience, their viral expertise and consequently the significant advantage of ABL being able to rapidly manufacture supplies to start our clinical trials," said Erich Tauber, chief executive officer, Themis.
 
Themis recently announced that it is underway and actively collaborating with Institut Pasteur, the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to develop a COVID-19 vaccine candidate. CEPI invested an initial $4.9 million USD for its development. ABL has been chosen by Themis to manufacture clinical trial supplies of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in France.
 
Using a Measles Vector Platform for COVID-19

In order to rapidly design a COVID-19 vaccine, Themis uses the measles vaccine vector backbone as a vehicle to deliver selected, incorporated protein antigens, in this case from SARS-CoV-2, directly to macrophages and dendritic cells – the most potent and effective antigen-presenting cells that can trigger a specific immune response to the viral antigen. The broad applicability of the technology platform allows for the insertion of multiple large recombinant antigens from different pathogens into the vector.