Date: 2015-03-01
Type of information: Grant
Company: DiViNe consortium (Affilogic (France) Aquaporin (Denmark), GenIbet Biopharmaceuticals (Portugal) GSK (UK) iBET (Portugal) Merck KGaA (Germany)
Investors: European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme
Amount: €5.8 million
Funding type: grant
Planned used: The objective of the DiViNe project is to create an integrated, cost-effective purification program specifically tailored for vaccines that achieves higher yields while preserving product integrity. Merck KGaA,’s specific focus will be on
simplifying the process of vaccine purification that typically relies on affinity chromatography. In support of this goal, the
company will be providing chromatographic materials and coupling technologies.
The DiViNe project’s integrated purification platform will first be tested with diverse, heterogeneous vaccines including glycoconjugates, protein antigens and viruses. Once validated with vaccines, the consortium plans to implement its purification platform in downstream processes for other biologics, including recombinant proteins, gene
therapy vectors and blood products. A “positive“ purification to drastically reduce manufacturing costs
Purification steps account for up to 80% of manufacturing costs of most biological drugs, such as antibodies
and proteins. In the vaccine industry, purification processes are particularly complex as vaccines aim at
protecting healthy people.
The partners will adopt affinity chromatography, a potent way to separate one active compound from its
environment almost exclusively used for purification of monoclonal antibodies with protein A. Novel
affinity ligands, Nanofitins®, bear all the features to extend affinity chromatography for purification of most
biologics starting with vaccines: tailored affinity and elution parameters, easy conjugation to resins, low
cost-of-goods. The DiViNe consortium aims to establish a sustainable platform to design affordable, industry-compliant and environment-friendly purification processes for other complex biological drugs, such as recombinant proteins and blood products.
Others: * On September 14, 2016, Merck KGaA announced that it has joined the DiViNe project, a European consortium of six companies to address the biggest challenges facing the development, manufacture and delivery of vaccines.
The DiViNe project is part of the company’s larger vaccine initiative focusing on the biggest challenges around vaccines: costs, speed, accessibility and delivery. The company has recently engaged with multiple global partners to support faster and more cost-effective development of new vaccines needed to fight diseases like Ebola, Zika and influenza.
* On March 1, 2015, the DiViNe initiative has been granted €5.8 million from the new EU's Horizon 2020 Framework Program. The full list of participants in the DiViNe consortium is: iBET (Portugal), Affilogic (France), Aquaporin
(Denmark), Merck Millipore KGaA (Germany), GenIbet Biopharmaceuticals (Portugal), GSK (Italy).
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases - Technology - Services
