Biotechnology company EpiVax Inc said on Tuesday that it has advanced computational tools to expedite the COVID-19 vaccine candidate (EPV-CoV19) into clinical trials in six months in aid of healthcare workers (HCW) combating the deadly virus.

In partnership with GAIA Vaccine Foundation (GVF), a nonprofit organisation, EpiVax Inc will crowd-source funds up to USD1.75m for the EPV-CoV19 project and pledge to make a free license available to qualified developing countries. The donations to the GVF COVID-19 vaccine fund will be entirely dedicated to the preclinical and clinical development phases of EPV-CoV19.

The company stated that EPV-CoV19 is a peptide-based, epitope-driven vaccine that can be rapidly and safely produced in most countries. Applying EpiVax's expertise enabled the selection of sequences representing all circulating SARS-CoV-2 genomes that will drive a T cell-mediated immune response, providing HCW with immune system 'body armor', reducing their risk of morbidity and mortality.

In conjunction, GVF will receive cost-free, royalty-free license to EPV-CoV19 design for use in countries that can produce and test the vaccine candidate on the Least Developed Countries list published by the UN. A clinical trial site in West Africa has been identified.