Chinese vaccine developer Shanghai Zerun Biotechnology and its parent company Walvax will receive extra funding to advance the early stage clinical trials of a Covid-19 shot against all variants of concern, including Omicron.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations – a global foundation that funds vaccine development – made the announcement on Tuesday. CEPI said it would invest US$8.15 million to support phase 1 and 2 trials of the new vaccine to protect against multiple Covid-19 variants being developed by Zerun Bio in Mali, as well as to support a vaccine against the original coronavirus strain.