Dyadic International views Trump’s executive order to improve flu vaccines as a positive

Dyadic International Inc (OTCMKTS:DYAI) Chief Commercial Officer Matthew Jones said Friday that President Trump’s executive order to modernize influenza vaccines would promote new technologies to improve vaccine manufacturing and could be a shot in the arm for company.

Founded in 1979, Jupiter, Florida-based Dyadic engages in the large-scale manufacture of low-cost enzymes and other proteins for markets in the United States and Europe.

“Dyadic see the goals of overhauling flu vaccine production away from an over reliance on time-consuming egg-based vaccine production as a very positive move,” Jones told Proactive.

“Dyadic’s C1 platform has within its toolbox the world’s most highly expressing cell line that has proven successful vaccination levels (100% of mice immunised at half dose versus industry standards). Given that the White House said improved production speed could help experts better match vaccines to the most current circulating strains Dyadic is of course keen to present it posters and data to the Health and Human Services (HSS) to aid this important mission,” he added.

READ: Dyadic on course to disrupt the status quo in manufacturing biologic vaccines and drugs

Dyadic leverages its proprietary C1 expression system — a fungal expression technology for producing enzymes — to help bring biologic vaccines, therapeutic enzymes, proteins, biosimilars and drugs to market faster and at a lower cost.

Dyadic has patented its proprietary filamentous fungus, Myceliophthora thermophila, nicknamed C1 and the associated molecular tools used to engineer the C1 cells to express and manufacture large volumes of low-cost biologic products such as enzymes and proteins. The C1 fungus, is a living cell that has been bioengineered by Dyadic scientists for more than two decades. 

Trump’s order also establishes a new task force charged with developing a solid plan to modernize US flu vaccine production. Many of the vaccines we use are produced overseas, using time-consuming, egg-based technology, which limits their effectiveness and makes production too slow to combat a potential deadly influenza pandemic.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar said that under the executive order, HHS will lead the coordination of efforts to modernize flu vaccine production.

Leveraging C1′s powerful vaccine platform

“An alternative to the ways of making fast cheap supply of vaccines is long overdue,” said Jones.

“We see that C1 can produce levels of 1 or more gram per liter of HAs and other antigens in 5-to-7 days fermentation. This means that in seasonal influenza vaccines, total doses distributed from C1 could be 146 million a year where each 0.5 ml dose is formulated to contain 15 µg of HA for each strain —  meaning that in just a 3 X 1000L scale fermentation runs Dyadic will be able to supply 2,175 g, which is the annual global HA/strain demand,” he added.  

Manufacturers such as GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Sanofi make millions of doses of flu vaccine for the US market alone, growing the virus in chicken eggs. Usually the doses, which protect against strains that experts predicted the previous February, are ready in time for the winter flu season.

“We see many advantages of C1 applied to the manufacturing of vaccines,” said Jones.

Each year seasonal flu, which can kill tens of thousands of Americans, costs the US about $50 billion, including lost productivity. A serious flu pandemic would push those costs to between $1.8 billion and $3.8 billion.

In May, Dyadic teamed up with the Serum Institute of India Private Limited to develop affordable antibodies and vaccines. One of the world’s largest vaccine makers, Serum will collaborate with Dyadic on up to 12 antibodies and vaccines (8 MABs and 4 rVaccines) using Dyadic’s proprietary C1 gene expression platform.

Contact Uttara Choudhury at [email protected]

Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive 

Story by ProactiveInvestors