Vaccine company Voltron Therapeutics Inc on Thursday announced a Sponsored Research Agreement with the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center (VIC) of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to co-develop a new vaccine to protect patients against COVID-19.

Under the agreement, VIC's Self-Assembling Vaccine (SAV) platform will be licensed exclusively to Voltron for vaccine development. The vaccine is expected to enter animal testing by the end of April 2020 and will be followed by safety studies. The VaxCelerate platform was developed to improve patient outcomes by engaging the immune system to identify and target certain pathogens or cancer cells.

HaloVax, a special purpose subsidiary of Voltron Therapeutics Inc, will reportedly spearhead the development of new vaccine. Data on two candidates from both small and large animal models is expected within six months.

In the SAV programme, the vaccine incorporates a heat shock protein that activates the immune system in contrast to prior vaccine efforts, which used chemical adjuvants like alum. The vaccine consists of a fusion protein between a heat shock protein and Avidin. Biotinylated immunogenic peptides are then incorporated to customise the vaccine.