Human trials are planned this year, said Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts Eye and Ear, which are behind the early stage project, adding vaccine manufacturing at Novartis's AveXis gene therapy unit will start before Monday. While Novartis divested its vaccines business to GlaxoSmithKline in 2015, AveXis President David Lennon said his unit's gene therapy expertise made it a good fit to join the Massachusetts' effort, a major departure from traditional vaccine making. AveXis will donate technology and supply chain resources to making vaccine for early trials, while retaining future production options, if all goes well, Lennon said. Harvard Medical School professor Luk Vandenberghe, who initiated this vaccine candidate in his lab at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, said AveXis's commercial gene therapy experience made it the logical partner. “We are more on track than ever to reaching our goal of developing a vaccine capable for wide distribution," Vandenberghe said in a statement announcing the deal.

Source: bd News24 May 28, 2020 16:41 UTC