HAUPPAUGE, NY (Dec. 22, 2020) – COVAXX, a U.S. company developing a multitope synthetic peptide-based vaccine to fight COVID-19, has established a Vaccine Prioritization Advisory Group (VPAG) to guide the company leadership on how best to apportion the first 100 million doses of the COVAXX COVID-19 vaccine.
Decisions made now and in the coming months regarding COVID-19 vaccines will affect the world for years to come. COVAXX invited renowned experts in infectious disease, vaccine science, pharmaceutical distribution, organ transplant allocation, medical ethics and industry economics to apply a multi-faceted approach beyond the business of distribution.
A recent study conducted by Global Justice Now, a health and social justice campaign group based in the UK, and supported by an independent analysis from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, demonstrated that an equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines globally would prevent 61% of subsequent deaths, compared to 33% of deaths avoided if doses are shared with rich nations first. The formation of COVAXX’s VPAG allows the company to overcome challenges that they have identified in the field, including the maximization of resources to improve public health, the equity and fairness of care for patients worldwide regardless of socio-economic status, and the transparency of vaccine study data (including vaccine performance, disease state and public health) and distribution decisions to cultivate trust in efficacy from the community. Without public trust, the ability to create a wide-scale immunity represents a fundamental challenge.
“In light of the significant toll the COVID-19 global pandemic has taken, we are increasingly cognizant of the importance of the COVAXX vaccine candidate. One of the main challenges in lower and middle incomes is that a lot of the populations aren't in an urban setting, which represents a significant logistical problem. It is therefore our duty to ensure that the vaccine, when approved by various global regulators, be distributed fairly and with transparency. I am grateful for the efforts that every esteemed member of our VPAG has taken to meet these goals,” said Mei Mei Hu, JD, co-founder and CEO of COVAXX.
The COVAXX VPAG includes the following members:
Panelists:
- Sandeep Jauhar, Heart Failure Program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center
- Jennifer Miller, Yale School of Medicine, Director of the Good Pharma Scorecard Initiative
- George Siber, Co-founder and Board Member of Affinivax, Board Member Genocea, Consultant to the Gates Foundation, PATH and the Wellcome Trust
- Marc Lipsitch, Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics
- David Johnson, CEO of 4sight Health, author of Market vs. Medicine: America’s Epic Fight for Better, Affordable Healthcare and the influential Market Corner Commentaries; The Customer Revolution in Healthcare: Delivering Kinder, Smarter, Affordable Care for All
Moderators:
• Annalisa Jenkins MD, Board member FasterCures, a Center of the Milken Institute; Chairman, Cell Medica; Member Science Advisory Board of the FDA; Chairman of the Court at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
• Mike Rea, CEO Idea Pharma; Senior Fellow FasterCures, a Center of the Milken Institute; Advisor Bioethics International; Strategic Innovation Advisor, Nanoform
Though several vaccine candidates are in development, there is an urgent need to distribute COVID-19 vaccines globally to mitigate the devastation of the pandemic. As the pandemic is an ever-evolving public health situation, COVAXX must be prepared for a number of scenarios with regard to the future deployment of its vaccine candidate UB-612. The COVAXX vaccine offers several advantages that will help mitigate these challenges and inform the VPAG’s decision-making process, including a strong safety profile with no components of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, easier distribution due to 2-8C temperature storage, and the high-volume manufacturing capabilities of COVAXX. Ultimately, these factors and the VPAG panel have the potential to save millions of lives.
For logistics and distribution, COVAXX announced a global logistics partnership with Maersk, the world’s largest shipping and integrated logistics provider, that creates a framework for all transportation and supply chain services that will be needed to deliver the COVAXX vaccine around the world. COVAXX recently announced advanced purchase commitments of more than 140 million doses of its UB-612 vaccine, totaling over $2.8 billion, to deliver vaccines in multiple countries, including Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.
UB-612 Fact Sheet: www.covaxx.com/vaccine
About COVAXX. The mission of COVAXX is to democratize health and safeguard lives worldwide by tackling the global COVID-19 pandemic using cost-effective, scalable and proven science-based solutions. Produced from a commercially proven, vaccine platform, UB-612 is a multitope vaccine designed to activate both B and T-cell arms of the immune system. Preclinical studies have shown that the UB-612 vaccine candidate generated high titers of neutralizing antibodies.
COVAXX is a subsidiary of United Biomedical Inc (UBI), founded in 1985, with headquarters in New York. The company is a scientific trailblazer creating technological firsts, including the manufacture and commercialization of more than 100 million antibody blood diagnostic tests and 5 billion vaccine doses against infectious diseases in animal health. With proprietary access to UBI's core technology platforms, COVAXX can develop and commercialize high precision antibody tests and a promising COVID-19 vaccine that together would form a unique Differentiating Infected from Vaccinated Individuals (DIVI) system.
For more information, visit www.covaxx.com and follow us on social media. Twitter: @covaxxvaccine; Facebook: @COVAXX; LinkedIn: /COVAXX; and Instagram: @covaxxvaccine.
