Colourised scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (red) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow). Credit: NIAID.

Gritstone has entered into a clinical trial agreement with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) unit the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to advance its Covid-19 programme, CORAL, for developing a second-generation vaccine.

Gritstone noted that the vaccine can potentially provide prolonged protection, as well as potency against spike mutants of the virus.

Go deeper with GlobalData

Data Insights

The gold standard of business intelligence.

Find out more

Related Company Profiles

View all

A Phase I clinical trial, set to take place through the NIAID-supported Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium (IDCRC), is in development.

A grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will back the preclinical analysis of the vaccine.

Gritstone co-founder, president and CEO Andrew Allen said: “Since inception, Gritstone has developed two core assets – cutting-edge T cell epitope identification and potent vaccines shown to activate a strong and broad immune response in humans – and both of these have been deployed in our quest for a second-generation SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

“We are excited to be working with the experienced teams at NIAID and the IDCRC as well as the experts at the Gates Foundation and LJI [La Jolla Institute for Immunology] who have helped us design and pre-clinically test our novel vaccine concepts.”

How well do you really know your competitors?

Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

Company Profile – free sample

Thank you!

Your download email will arrive shortly

Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

By GlobalData
Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

The company can access validated SARS-CoV-2 epitopes through a license agreement with the LJI.

Using the epitopes identified by LJI and its EDGE and vaccine platform technologies, the company is developing a vaccine with spike and additional viral epitopes that offer good targets for T-cell immunity.

The company uses self-amplifying mRNA and adenoviral vectors to provide the SARS-CoV-2 viral antigens.

Gritstone chief scientific officer Karin Jooss said: “Our preclinical work has shown that our SARS-CoV-2 vaccines can induce sustained, high-titer neutralising antibodies and CD8+ T cell responses against the Spike protein, plus a broad CD8+ T-cell response against epitopes from multiple viral genes outside of Spike.”