Baylor College of Medicine collaborates with Biological E. Limited to develop a COVID 19 vaccine for global access

Hyderabad (India), August 13, 2020: Baylor College of Medicine and Biological E. Limited (BE) today announced a licensing agreement for the development of a safe, effective and affordable COVID-19 vaccine.  

BE, an India-based company, has licensed the recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed at Baylor. The company engaged in license negotiations with the BCM Ventures team, part of Baylor College of Medicine, after initial discussions on Baylor’s technology and how it could possibly inform a vaccine to address the current global pandemic. The company will leverage its past experience for the further development and commercialization of the vaccine candidate, which currently is produced using a proven yeast-based expression technology.

“This week’s information that India has become the third-leading nation in terms of COVID-19 cases has sparked concern that COVID-19 will become widespread and a serious and deadly infection across the crowded urban areas of South Asia,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, professor and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor and co-director of Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development. “This is why this agreement is timely.”

“For the past two decades, our vaccine center has been advancing global health vaccines to prevent neglected and emerging diseases,” said Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, associate dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor and co-director of Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development. “We are therefore well suited to embark on this important collaboration with BE and look forward to facilitating the technology transfer for the COVID-19 vaccine to India and for the world.”

The current focus is on transfer of the technology for BE to initiate scale-up of the manufacturing process and undertake further development of the vaccine candidate.

“BE is pleased to be a part of the global scientific effort aimed at exploring ways to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The partnership with Baylor would help accelerate the development of an affordable vaccine, especially for India and other low- and middle-income nations,” said Mahima Datla, managing director of BE.

“We look forward to leveraging our capabilities for the development and manufacturing of this much needed vaccine. If the vaccine development is successful, we expect to make several hundred million doses of the vaccine available annually,” said Narender Dev Mantena, director of BioE Holdings Inc., who heads BE’s novel vaccine initiative.

About Baylor College of Medicine

Baylor College of Medicine in Houston is recognized as health sciences university and is known for excellence in education, research and patient care. It is the only private medical school in the greater southwest and is ranked 22nd among medical schools for research and 4th for primary care by U.S. News & World Report. Baylor is listed 20th among all U.S. medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding and No. 1 in Texas. The Baylor pediatrics program ranked 8th among all pediatric programs, reflecting the strong affiliation with Texas Children’s Hospital where our faculty care for pediatric patients and our students and residents train. Located in the Texas Medical Center, Baylor has affiliations with seven teaching hospitals and jointly owns and operates Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, part of CHI St. Luke’s Health. Currently, Baylor has more than 3,000 trainees in medical, graduate, nurse anesthesia, physician assistant, orthotics and genetic counseling as well as residents and postdoctoral fellows. Follow Baylor College of Medicine on Facebook and Twitter.

About BCM Ventures

Baylor College of Medicine Ventures is the commercial engine of the health sciences university, created to support the translation of academic knowledge and intellectual assets for the benefit of society. We do this by engaging university innovators, entrepreneurs and industry to fully develop ideas along their best commercial path. We foster a culture of commercialization and engage with industry to identify market opportunities for collaborative ventures. To learn more about partnering with BCM Ventures and accessing our available technologies

About Biological E. Limited

Biological E. Limited (BE), a Hyderabad-based Pharmaceuticals & Biologics Company founded in 1953, is the first private sector biological products company in India and the first pharmaceutical company in Southern India. BE develops, manufactures and supplies vaccines and therapeutics. BE supplies its vaccines to over 100 countries and its therapeutic products are sold in India and the USA. BE currently has 8 WHO-prequalified vaccines in its portfolio.

In recent years, BE has embarked on new initiatives for organisational expansion such as developing generic injectable products for the regulated markets, exploring synthetic biology and metabolic engineering as a means to manufacture APIs sustainably and developing novel vaccines for the global market.