Variation Biotechnologies Inc. (VBI), also known as VBI Vaccines Inc., is a biopharmaceutical company, headquartered in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...

, with research facilities in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and a research and manufacturing site in

Rehovot, Israel Rehovot ( he, רְחוֹבוֹת ''Rəḥōvōt'', ar, رحوڤوت ''Reḥūfūt'') is a city in the Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu movemen ...

. Its Ottawa facility has approximately thirty researchers working with

National Research Council of Canada The National Research Council Canada (NRC; french: Conseil national de recherches Canada) is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research & development. It is the largest federal research ...

(NRC) to produce a COVID-19 vaccine—VBI-2902. In August VBI received CA$56 million from the Government of Canada to prepare its vaccine for clinical trials by the end of 2020. The company's CEO, Jeff Baxter, said that VBI-2902 is cheaper to produce than other vaccines. __TOC__

Background

By 2007, VBI had received financial support from the

's Industrial Research Assistance Program,

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED; french: Innovation, Sciences et Développement économique Canada; french: ISDE, label=none)''Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal I ...

and Investissement Quebec. The company was originally financed by Clarus Ventures, a global life sciences venture capital firm under then CEO is

Jeffrey Leiden Jeffrey Leiden, M.D., Ph.D. is the executive chairman of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company based in Boston, Massachusetts. He was initially appointed to the board of directors of the company in 2009 and was CEO and president from ...

ARCH Venture Partners ARCH Venture Partners (ARCH) is an American venture capital firm based in Chicago. Background In 1986, the ARCH Development Corporation was initially created by the University of Chicago and the Argonne National Laboratory as an non-profit i ...

, 5AM Ventures and other private investors.

VBI-2902 vaccine

In early 2020, in collaboration with NRC the VBI's vaccine—VBI-2900—was developed. According to the company, they have two vaccine candidates—"enveloped virus-like particle (eVLP)". VBI-2901 is a "trivalent pan-coronavirus vaccine expressing the SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV spike proteins". VBI-2902 is a "monovalent COVID-19-specific vaccine expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein". By March 9, the initial Phase 1/2 study of VBI-2902 was underway. VBI received CA$56 million from the federal government towards the COVID-19 vaccine development. The company's CEO, Jeff Baxter, said that VBI-2902 is cheaper to produce than other vaccines.

References

External links

* Medical and health organizations based in the United States Biotechnology companies of the United States COVID-19 vaccine producers {{US-company-stub