Fujifilm signs COVID-19 manufacturing agreement with VLP

Published: 5-Oct-2020

This COVID-19 vaccine R&D project was selected for funding by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development

Fujifilm has announced a manufacturing contract agreement with VLP Therapeutics regarding the company's COVID-19 vaccine formulation.

VLP's COVID-19 vaccine is a self-amplifying (replicon) RNA vaccine that uses a formulation (lipid nanoparticle) which is a type of Drug Delivery System (DDS) technology. Fujifilm will utilise its manufacturing facilities and infrastructure for lipid nanoparticle to handle operations relating to VLP Therapeutics' COVID-19 vaccine formulations, from process development to manufacturing for clinical trials.

Research is currently underway at VLP Therapeutics LLC to produce COVID-19 vaccines that, using replicons, can demonstrate a high amount of efficacy even with inoculation in small amounts, reduce the risk of adverse reactions, and cope with some genetic mutation.

VLP Therapeutics will proceed in Japan with pre-clinical and clinical trials of this vaccine in collaboration with the National Center for Global Health and Medicine; the National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition; Oita University; and Osaka City University.

In March of this year, Fujifilm concluded a strategic partnership agreement with Canada's Precision NanoSystems (PNI). By using Fujifilm Toyama Chemical's 701 Factory, NanoAssemblr (GMP-compatible), a lipid nanoparticle manufacturing device produced by PNI that was introduced into this factory, as well as PNI's customer base, Fujifilm is promoting its process development and contract manufacturing business for active ingredients, nucleic acid drugs and RNA.

Under the agreement with VLP Therapeutics, Fujifilm will develop the production process for VLP Therapeutics' COVID-19 vaccine formulation and also manufacture it for the clinical trials.

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