Gritstone and CEPI Announce Agreement to Advance Second-Generation COVID-19 Vaccine Program (CORAL) Against SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern

Gritstone bio, Inc. a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next generation cancer and infectious disease immunotherapies, announced that the company entered into a funding agreement of up to $20.6 million with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to advance the development of Gritstone’s CORAL COVID-19 vaccine program with an initial focus in South Africa.

“COVID-19 variants are already rendering some of our vaccines less effective, so it is critical that we don’t let our guard down: we must continue to invest in critical vaccine R&D if we are to stay one step ahead of this deadly virus,” said Richard Hatchett, M.D., CEO of CEPI. “CEPI is planning for the longer-term management of COVID-19 by investing in vaccines to address the threat of variants, and I’m pleased to work with Gritstone to advance the development of this innovative vaccine candidate which can be made globally accessible through COVAX if it is proven to be safe and effective.”

“Our unique approach combines our self-amplifying mRNA platform with a broad set of viral antigens beyond spike intended to drive robust and durable immune responses comprising both neutralizing antibodies and CD8+ T cells. With this unique antigenic breadth, our CORAL vaccine may offer protection against emerging spike variants of SARS-CoV-2 that appear challenging for first generation vaccines,” said Andrew Allen, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Gritstone. “We are honored to be supporting CEPI in their mission to help find new vaccine solutions to battle this deadly virus on a global scale and help prevent current and perhaps future COVID outbreaks.”

Professor Shabir Madhi, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and professor of vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa and a member of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) commented, “The ongoing mutations in SARS-CoV-2 leading to increased transmissibility and relative immune evasion from most first generation COVID-19 vaccines that primarily target the spike protein, call for alternate approaches aimed at driving CD8+ immunity against spike and more conserved epitopes. This could assist in reducing both infectiousness of breakthrough cases and overall virus transmission.” Professor Mahdi will lead the Gritstone clinical trial in South Africa.

Under the terms of the agreement, CEPI will fund a multi-arm Phase 1 study evaluating the CORAL program’s SAM vaccine in naïve, convalescent, and HIV+ patients. The funding will also support pre-clinical studies, scale-up and formulation development to enable more stable drug product. The study will evaluate two different SAM vaccine constructs that each target both the spike protein and other SARS-CoV-2 targets and are designed to drive both robust B and T cell immune responses. The trial is expected to initiate before the end of 2021.

CEPI is committed to global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines so, through this agreement, CEPI and Gritstone bio have agreed that this vaccine candidate will be made available to the COVAX Facility for procurement and allocation, if proven to be safe and effective. The COVAX Facility aims to deliver equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, at all levels of development, that wish to participate.