A small biotechnology company developing potential therapies and vaccines against Covid-19 has received a major funding boost from a large drugmaker.
London-based GlaxoSmithKline said Monday it would make an equity investment of $250 million in San Francisco-based Vir Biotechnology as part of a collaboration between the two to develop drugs and vaccines against the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
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Shares of Vir were up nearly 30% on the Nasdaq in afternoon trading.
The companies plan to use Vir’s monoclonal antibody technology find new antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and speed up the development of new ones, while also using GSK’s capabilities in functional genomics, CRISPR screening and artificial intelligence to find compounds against the coronavirus. The initial focus will be on two candidates, VIR-7831 and VIR-7832 and plan to initiate a Phase II clinical trial in the next three to five months. In preclinical testing, the drugs have demonstrated high affinity for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
“Vir’s unique antibody platform has precedented success in identifying and developing antibodies as treatments for multiple pathogens, and it is highly complementary with our R&D approach to focus on the science of immunology,” GSK chief scientific officer Hal Barron said in a statement. “I am very excited that the talent and passion of our two companies will come together to develop solutions for multiple diseases, including the very promising antibody candidates targeting Covid-19.”
In a note to investors Monday, Cowen analyst Phil Nadeau wrote that his firm was “encouraged” that GSK had selected Vir as its partner to identify treatments and vaccines against the Covid-19 virus, expressing optimism that the companies’ combined expertise could accelerate the programs.
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As Nadeau noted, Vir has formed partnerships with a number of different companies to develop medicines for Covid-19. On Thursday, Vir said it would expand an existing partnership with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to develop and commercialize RNA interference-based therapies for infectious diseases. Under the expanded collaboration, they will evaluate RNAi therapeutics targeting three host factors required for infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including ACE2 and TMPRSS2.
And last Monday, Vir said it had partnered with Generation Bio in a research agreement. Under another partnership, announced last month, Vir is working with Biogen, which has suffered a large outbreak of the virus. Vir CEO George Scangos was previously CEO of Biogen.
Photo: GSK
