B.C. firm working on COVID-19 vaccine
Spinoff of UBC deeply involved in biotech revolution centred on cutting edge mRNA technology
A Vancouver nanomedicine company is part of a team using new genetic technology to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
Precision NanoSystems Incorporated is working on a vaccine in the same class the ones made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the only two COVID-19 vaccines approved by Health Canada.
PNI's vaccine is based on a new kind of technology called mRNA which stands for messenger ribonucleic acid. The mRNA class of vaccines carry genetic instructions to make proteins that trigger the body's immune system. Once a body has antibodies, it can fight off a real infection when it comes in contact with SARS-CoV-2, the name of the virus that causes COVID-19.
James Taylor, CEO of Precision NanoSystems, said the “revolutionary technology is having an impact not only on the COVID-19 pandemic but also the treatment of other diseases.
“These medicines are happening today that we really didn't have the ability to consider, say, even five years ago,” he said in a Zoom interview. “Our company is helping to bring this revolution to bear. We're a big part of the global community around these genetic medicines.”
The federal government has invested $18.2 million in PNI to carry its vaccine candidate through preclinical studies and clinical trails.
Ottawa has also invested another $173 million in Medicago, a Quebec-city based company which is developing a virus-like particle vaccine on a plant-based platform and building a large-scale vaccine and antibody production facility. The federal government has an agreement with Medicago to buy up to 76 million doses (enough for 38 million people) of its COVID19 vaccine.
PNI's vaccine, which the company is developing with other collaborators, is still at an early, preclinical stage.
“We aim to be in early clinical trials half way through the year and completed Phase1 (and) 2 by the end of the year,” Taylor said.
While the PNI vaccine isn't going to help Canadians this year with COVID-19, it has the capacity to help in 2021 and beyond. While natural immunity to COVID-19 may extend for up to a year, it is not known how long vaccine-immunity may last. COVID-19 could become like the flu and require regular revaccinations.
As well, a locally developed vaccine means creating Canadian capacity to develop vaccines for other viral epidemics, including what epidemiologists expect to be worldwide outbreak of influenza similar to the 1918 pandemic.
“I think this is an opportunity for us to develop a-made-in Canada vaccine,” Taylor said. “For us, it enables us to potentially help with COVID and have a vaccine candidate to help in the future. A big part of this is for pandemic preparedness and building the capability and capacity and know-how in Canada.”
One of the challenges of a first-generation mRNA vaccine such as Pfizer-BioNTech is that it has to be kept frozen at -60 to -80 C in special freezer units. Taylor believes those kind of cold chain transportation problems will be solved in future mRNA vaccines.
According to the World Health Organization, there are 63 COVID-19 vaccines in clinical development and 173 at the preclinical stage.
Taylor is one of the co-founders of PNI along with Euan Ramsay, the company's chief commercial officer.
The scientific co-founders of PNI are physicist Carl Hansen and Pieter Cullis. Cullis is also board chairman and scientific adviser at Acuitas Therapeutics, the UBC biotechnology company that developed the delivery system for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
PNI, founded in 2010 as a spinoff from UBC, focuses on developing technology and expertise in genetic medicine to treat a wide range of infectious and rare diseases and cancers.
What has been described as PNI's flagship product is a NanoAssemblr Benchtop Instrument, which allows scientists to develop nanomedicines for testing.
PNI employs 120 people and works with more than 160 companies around the world, about 40 to 50 of which are also developing mRNA vaccines. PNI is in the process of expanding at its south Vancouver location.
Taylor said what is new about mRNA medicines is that they are all fully synthetic and able to be made in relatively large amounts in the laboratory. Scientists have also discovered that mRNA can be more effective than traditional vaccines made from cell cultures because they can produce both antibodies and immune killer cells.
Part of the story of the arrival of mRNA vaccines is that many of the top pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines were looking into their efficacy just before COVID-19.
An article in Nature, the weekly British science journal, in February of 2020 about the promise of rRNA vaccines said they “hold the promise to revolutionize the field by addressing current manufacturing challenges and offering novel vaccine compositions.
Taylor said when COVID-19 spread around the world early in 2020, mRNA vaccines “clearly won the race for vaccines.
“It is a truly amazing feat considering it was the newest of all the technologies,” he said.