A Perth clinical research company has been selected to undertake a trial of one of the first vaccines in the world to demonstrate safety and immune response against COVID-19.

Linear Clinical Research announced that it will conduct a human trial of a ground-breaking vaccine candidate which is being developed to help the body produce antibodies to fight the deadly coronavirus which causes COVID-19 disease.

Linear Clinical Research chief executive officer Jayden Rogers.

The vaccine candidate COVID-19 S-Trimer has been developed by China-based, global biotechnology company Clover Biopharmaceuticals.

Linear’s Chief Executive Officer Jayden Rogers said the COVID-19 S-Trimer vaccine showed immense potential and securing the trial was a major coup for Australia.

“This is one of the most prominent trials globally and involves some of the most renowned vaccines companies,” said Mr Rogers.

Mr Rogers said the COVID-19 S-Trimer vaccine trial was significant because:

• Clover was one of the first companies to start developing a vaccine – Clover started working on a COVID-19 vaccine in January this year. Clover’s access to early COVID-19 data and reagents made them one of the first companies to develop a vaccine which targets a protein that the virus needs to enter host cells.

• Collaboration with renowned global vaccine development experts – the program expanded to include innovations from GSK (UK), Dynavax (US) and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI Switzerland).

• One of the first to make it to human trials – there are more than 60 candidate COVID-19 vaccines in development around the world, but only a few are entering early clinical trials in human volunteers.
Mr Rogers said what made the vaccine so promising, was Clover’s Trimer-Tag© technology platform, which is used to create the protein-based COVID-19 S-Trimer vaccine that aims to promote production of antibodies against the coronavirus Spike (S) protein.

“Clover’s Trimer-Tag© platform has already been used in a range of clinical studies and has also been utilised for the development of vaccines for other RNA-based viruses such as influenza, RSV and HIV,” said Mr Rogers.

“Combined with extensive preclinical research and commercial-scale manufacturing capabilities, COVID-19 S-Trimer is one of the most exciting vaccine programs globally for the current coronavirus pandemic.”

The Phase 1 clinical trial of the COVID-19 S-Trimer vaccine is planned to involve healthy adult and healthy elderly trial participants. Linear will be seeking volunteers to participate in the study within the next 2 months.

If successful, a larger Phase 2b/3 clinical trial involving thousands of people around the world would be conducted immediately, and it is hoped that the COVID-19 vaccine will be widely available upon confirmation of its safety and efficacy.

“The fight against COVID-19 requires a global effort bringing together the best science and innovation,” said Mr Rogers.

“We are fortunate to be one of the few countries in the world to still be offering functional clinical trial facilities because we do not have large volumes of COVID-19 cases as compared to other parts of the world,” he said.

“Linear was awarded the study because of our extensive experience testing the world’s latest medical breakthroughs combined with its industry leading digital innovations.

“It also reflects Linear’s long term investment in China and on-going relationships with the pioneers of China’s global biopharmaceutical industry.”

“We are thrilled to get the opportunity to bring our world class clinical trials capabilities to support Clover and their global collaborators in one of the most promising COVID-19 vaccine programs in the world.”

Joshua Liang, Chief Strategy Officer at Clover Biopharmaceuticals and co-inventor of the COVID-19 STrimer vaccine said given the status of the current pandemic, the successful clinical development of our COVID-19 vaccine program is of utmost importance not only to Clover, but also the world.

“Australia is a prime strategic destination for first-in-human Phase I clinical studies, and we are proud to partner with Linear, one of the top research units in the world,” said Mr Liang.

For more information visit Linear.