OSLO/BOSTON/MADISON, 2 Aug – Researchers in the US are pursuing pioneering technology that may be able to rapidly create safe and effective vaccines against deadly epidemic and pandemic diseases that are more stable and less expensive than current vaccines. This has the potential to benefit more people globally.

CEPI is giving Boost Biopharma a $5 million cash injection to advance its cutting-edge rapid antigen design process that has the potential to quickly create new vaccines against troublesome viruses, like SARS-CoV-2—the virus behind COVID-19—and its constantly evolving variants, along with other vaccines of global interest.

Boost’s vaccines are made with protein antigens—molecules that mimic a part of a virus which our bodies then recognize and respond to—in order to provide protective immunity. Accelerating the development of protein vaccines could meet or exceed the speed at which other types of vaccines, like mRNA vaccines, are made. This could enable faster responses to future emerging outbreaks, in support of CEPI’s 100 Days Mission.