Redmond, WA (May 10, 2022) – Inventprise, a biotechnology company specializing in novel, affordable and impactful vaccines, today announced the inauguration of its new manufacturing facility for high-capacity supply of a 25-valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (IVT-PCV-25) for low- and middle-income countries. Bill Gates joined Inventprise leaders and employees to tour the new facility and deliver remarks at the inauguration ceremony.
The highly automated facility, supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will produce drug product used in IVT-PCV-25. Production is expected to reach tens of millions of doses in the coming years in anticipation of completion of later stage clinical trials and application for WHO prequalification. The facility also has the capability to meet additional global demand for the vaccine outside of low-and-middle-income countries. The site will support continuous manufacturing, with highly sophisticated instruments monitoring the manufacturing processes to ensure the vaccine components meet stringent regulatory standards.
“Pneumonia is the leading killer of children worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries where access to lifesaving vaccines is still far too limited,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “The opening of Inventprise’s new facility marks an important step forward in increasing the supply of affordable vaccines.”
Dr. Subhash Kapre, Executive Chairman, Inventprise commented, “Today is an exceptional day for innovative vaccine development, because we have invented a broadly protective vaccine candidate which has the potential to be available first for the most vulnerable populations in the poorest countries and at an uncompromised level of quality. “Yves Leurquin, Inventprise CEO, added to Dr. Kapre’s statement, “This plant has a capacity that is high enough to make the vaccine available on a broader global basis as well. This is reversing the usual vaccine development path, where vaccines are first launched in high income countries and later, made available to low- and middle-income countries.
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About IVT-PCV-25
IVT-PCV-25 is an investigational pneumococcal conjugate vaccine being developed by Inventprise, in collaboration with non-profit global health organization PATH. The vaccine utilizes a proprietary platform to protect against some of the deadliest and emerging strains of pneumococcal disease seen globally especially in vulnerable pediatric populations, many who reside in low- and middle-income countries. Despite the introduction of PCV vaccines in many countries worldwide, Pneumococcal disease is a leading cause of severe childhood pneumonia, meningitis, and sepsis, killing approximately 300,000 children before age 5 per year worldwide.
November 10th, 2021
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funding will support development of novel vaccine designed to provide broad protection against pediatric pneumococcal disease, funding builds on over $100 million the foundation has committed to date
Redmond, WA– (BUSINESS WIRE)–Inventprise, a biotechnology company specializing in novel, affordable and highly impactful vaccines, announced today that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a global non-profit organization, has made a program-related investment in the company’s continued development of IVT-25, an investigational pneumococcal conjugate vaccine designed to prevent pneumococcal bacterial infections. Pneumonia remains the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide. The investment, made by the foundation’s Strategic Investment Fund, will support development activities through completion of Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical studies to assess safety and immunological proof-of-concept. The foundation will fund up to $90 million with the successful achievement of future manufacturing, preclinical and clinical development milestones.
IVT-25 is a 25 valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), designed to include the key strains that cause serious invasive disease in children, particularly in Africa and in other low- and middle-income countries. The investigational vaccine leverages Inventprise’s novel and proprietary linker platform technology which is designed to elicit significantly higher immune responses compared to existing technologies. The platform allows Inventprise vaccines to potentially increase the breadth of protection over that of current PCVs without compromising the immune response, a challenge not currently addressed by conventional technologies. Inventprise has generated pre-clinical data demonstrating superiority of IVT-25 compared to currently licensed vaccines in head-to-head studies. Inventprise expects to advance IVT-25 into first-in-human clinical trials in the second half of 2022.
The investment will support Inventprise’s goals to build a global PCV franchise. As part of its investment agreement with the foundation, Inventprise has committed to make IVT-25 available and accessible at an affordable price to low- and middle-income countries. In addition, the company has agreed to make its platform available for the development of future vaccines for global health.
“It is unacceptable that pneumonia remains the leading cause of death among children under the age of five,” said Keith Klugman, director of the Pneumonia program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “The scientific community must strive to develop more effective vaccines to protect the most vulnerable children from more strains of this devastating disease. The Gates Foundation is proud to support this bold undertaking which has strong potential to save the lives of millions of children in low-income settings.”
Subhash Kapre, Executive Chairman of Inventprise agrees, “Despite widespread PCV vaccination, considerable disease burden continues from pneumococcal serotypes not covered by the currently available vaccines, this is largely due to the genetic diversity of Streptococcus pneumoniae. High rates of morbidity and mortality due to pneumococcal disease underscore the need for a wider-spectrum vaccine especially in lower- and middle-income countries and ultimately for all populations globally. We are pleased to receive funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to achieve this goal.”
