News & Media
CEPI partners with biotech Jurata Thin Film to create needle-free mRNA vaccines and improve access
5 December 2023, OSLO, Norway and CHAPEL HILL, NC
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has partnered with Jurata Thin Film, Inc. (Jurata) to advance development of Jurata's thermostable under-the-tongue mRNA vaccine films as a needle-free vaccine delivery platform. CEPI will provide up to an initial US $1.2 million to support Jurata's proprietary innovative formulation platform which, if shown to be successful, could help expand access to mRNA vaccines in underserved regions and advance the global response to future emerging infectious disease outbreaks.
mRNA vaccine technologies were critical in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling rapid development and manufacturing of billions of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine doses. However, to maintain vaccine potency, these vaccines had to be stored and distributed at below-zero temperatures, making them extremely difficult to deliver to remote areas or low-resource settings, which commonly lack the infrastructure and technologies needed to support these temperatures. This has limited global access to lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines, exacerbating pandemic suffering.
Jurata aims to improve vaccine accessibility to remote regions by stabilising the 3D structure of mRNA-containing lipid nanoparticle (LNP) vaccine materials, provided by Quantoom Biosciences, part of Univercells, into a thin thermostable film, thereby removing frozen storage needs. The vaccine films are also lightweight and compact, simplifying the transportation process and potentially allowing for more doses to be shipped at any one time compared to current needle-and-syringe distribution.
CEPI's initial funding will support optimising the composition and process of creating Jurata's thin films, as well as preclinical studies to assess whether their film formulation can effectively stabilise mRNA vaccines and deliver them via placement under the tongue. If successful in preclinical trials, and potential later clinical trials, this specialized needle-free delivery option could help promote vaccine uptake in areas of vaccine hesitancy and reduce the need for vaccine delivery specialists by enabling self-administration.
Enabling equitable access to vaccines
Both CEPI and Jurata are committed to enabling equitable access to any vaccine outputs developed through this partnership. Under the terms of the agreement, Jurata has committed to ensuring supply for the Global South, production of vaccine volumes required to meet public health needs, affordable pricing for the Global South, and the potential technology transfer to Global South manufacturers in line with CEPI's Equitable Access Policy.
This is the fourth partner to be announced as part of CEPI's Call for Proposals for thermostable vaccine manufacturing innovations, announced in January 2022. Awardees were selected based on their innovative technology, ease of use, and potential accessibility to the Global South without affecting factors like costs or capacity. Additional partners are expected to be announced soon.
Jurata Thin Film Awarded $1 million through BLUE KNIGHT™ QuickFire Challenge and Project NextGen.
HOUSTON, Sept. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire
Jurata Thin Film, Inc., a company aiming to revolutionize vaccine and biologic manufacturing, storage, distribution, and delivery using their proprietary thin film formulation, and CastleVax, Inc., a company commercializing the Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) vaccine platform developed at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, are proud to announce that they have jointly been awarded a $1 million grant through the BLUE KNIGHT™ Resident QuickFire Challenge: Accelerating Project NextGen. These funds will be used to further the development of a thermostabilized next-generation vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 that can be transported and stored without temperature control (refrigeration or freezing), then delivered without needles to induce mucosal immunity.
Project NextGen is a $5 billion initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in May 2023 and overseen by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) that aims to fund the development and testing of next-generation vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 that, among other things, confer mucosal immunity, offer broader and longer-lasting protection against variants, and "enable faster, cheaper, rapid, and more flexible production of vaccines and therapeutics". Using Jurata's thin film platform to stabilize CastleVax's live-attenuated, next-generation NDV-vectored COVID-19 booster vaccine is expected to result in a shelf-stable, needle-free vaccine capable of inducing mucosal immunity and protecting against breakthrough infection and transmission of the virus.
Launched from Mount Sinai, CastleVax is a clinical-stage biotechnology company whose two lead candidates, an inactivated NDV and a live-attenuated NDV, both against SARS-CoV-2, have already generated clinical results both domestically and abroad. Their live-attenuated, next-generation COVID-19 booster vaccine will be used for the awarded studies, as it has been shown to elicit mucosal immunity in a Phase 1 clinical study in the United States. While CastleVax's vaccine has shown compelling results in the clinic, it currently requires ultra-cold storage and administration via an intranasal spray device, making it logistically challenging to distribute and administer in low-resource regions, including low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Jurata specializes in stabilizing temperature-sensitive vaccines and biologics, completely removing the need for refrigeration and freezing from manufacturing of the finished product all the way through administration of the therapeutic to patients. Additionally, Jurata has evidence to suggest that their thin film technology could also change the route of administration of vaccines from intramuscular or intranasal to sublingual (under the tongue) or buccal (inside the cheek).
The awarded project aims to optimize Jurata's formulation to stabilize CastleVax's live-attenuated, next-generation COVID-19 booster vaccine and show in preclinical studies that the resulting thermostable vaccine elicits equivalent protection against SARS-CoV-2, compared to CastleVax's original vaccine formulation.
"We are so excited about our partnership with Jurata Thin Film," says CastleVax's Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Michael Egan. He continued, "their thin film technology could make our live-attenuated, next-generation COVID-19 booster vaccine far more accessible to patients, no matter where they are in the world." Jurata's Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Irnela Bajrovic, added, "the combination of our company's technologies offers many advantages compared to current COVID-19 vaccines. We are honored to receive this award to pursue this work."
Jurata Thin Film Announced as BLUE KNIGHT™ Resident QuickFire Challenge Awardee.
AUSTIN, TEXAS. November 2021
Jurata Thin Film, Inc. (“Jurata”) has been selected to join BLUE KNIGHT™, a joint initiative between Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Jurata was selected for this program based on their proprietary thin film technology, developed at the University of Texas at Austin by Dr. Maria Croyle, Professor of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery. Jurata’s thin film technology aims to stabilize vaccines and biologics at room temperature. Furthermore, Jurata’s technology has the potential to deliver vaccines under the tongue using material smaller than a postage stamp.
The commercialization of Jurata’s thin film may greatly increase pandemic preparedness, as their technology aims to simplify vaccine distribution logistics by eliminating the need for cold chain technologies, as well as easing delivery burden on health care workers through needle-free administration of vaccines. Such advancement in pandemic preparedness aligns with the mission of the Blue Knight program.
“Jurata is honored to have been selected to be a Blue Knight company and we look forward to working with Johnson & Johnson Innovation and BARDA. We hope the program will help us in further developing our thin film technology for global preparedness for current and future public health crises,” said Dr. Croyle, who also serves as Jurata’s Chief Scientific Officer.