COVID-19

rapid product development 
to fight the global pandemic, 
in support of the EU Vaccines Strategy

ReiThera with GRAd-COV2 joins covidX - 
read more here



our feature section

The APIFA team explains: what is the API For Africa facility, and how does it work
API for Africa - our insight of the week -  April 20, 2021
assorted capsules,
photo by Polina Tankilevitch
The current COVID-19 vaccine production and roll-out shows how geographically skewed the manufacturing capacity of pharmaceuticals is. As such, Africa is the most underrepresented continent when it comes to access to medicines. While Africa is home to about 400 drug makers, sub-Sahara Africa countries still import more that 70 percent of their medicines for their needs. The problem is most poignant for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs): there are almost no API manufacturers in Africa. The global supply chains disruption by COVID-19 health emergency situation has led to significant delays in accessing the much-needed raw materials including APIs for production of medicines. This has led to the underutilization of the local production capacity and has somewhat hampered access to medicines. 

But the announcement of a novel financing facility dedicated to the manufacturing of APIs in and for Africa on December 17th, 2020 is designed to address this challenge. The European Investment Bank (EIB), together with API for Africa (APIFA), has developed a EUR 50 million loan facility that was approved in November 2020 and launched in December 2020. APIFA is a non-profit organization with the goal to develop API manufacturing capacity in sub-Saharan Africa. 

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Serum Institute of India: “the capability to service and help the world".
COVIVAXX - our insight of the week -  March 15 , 2021
SII's  R&D Director Dr. Umesh Shaligram (standing row, fifth from left)  photo courtesy kENUP Foundation
India, with over 10 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, is the second most affected country in the world. So, on January 12th, 2021, when Serum Institute of India (SII) sent out the first shipments of COVISHIELD vaccines to multiple locations across India, it was indeed “an emotional moment” for many, as SII CEO Adar Poonawalla stated on Twitter. 

SII is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced – around 1.5 billion each year. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the vaccines manufactured by SII included Polio, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Hepatitis B, Mumps, Rubella and many more. It is estimated that about 65 percent of the children in the world receive at least one vaccine manufactured by SII, the company’s website states. Not just SII as a company, but India as a country is the world’s top vaccine manufacturer. That is why they both play a crucial role in supplying the globe with a vaccine against COVID-19. 

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Two covidX platform technologies entered clinical validation in Italy this week.
COVID-eVax and mAbCo19 - our insight of the week -  March 4 , 2021
Dr. Rino Rappuoli, Chief Scientist of GSK Vaccines
photo courtesy  GSK
Amidst worries about a third COVID-19 wave and emerging coronavirus variants, there’s a lot of good news from Italy: 2 clinical trials have started on the same day. 

On March 1, Takis and Rottapharm Biotech announced the start of the clinical trial of COVID-eVax, their jointly developed vaccine candidate. "The start of the clinical trials represents an important step in the development of DNA technology against COVID-19 but also for other diseases", says Luigi Aurisicchio, CEO and scientific director of Takis. 

But that is not all, AchilleS Vaccines, that was granted financing in June by the EU Malaria Fund, together with Toscana Life Sciences (trial sponsor) and Cross Alliance (a CRO) is managing clinical trial sites on Monday for their monoclonal antibody, mAbCo19. “Within a bit more than six months we’ve been able, with the support of an outstanding team, to transform a patent into a product which is quite an unbelievable outcome”, says Riccardo Baccheschi, CEO and president of AchilleS Vaccines. “The aim is now reached; the product is there.”

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our goal

The global COVID-19 pandemic has grave health, societal, and economic consequences. The exact impact is uncertain and raises many questions. At the same time, both the lack of validated data and the mass of unfiltered information gives false hope and raises insecurity. With this website, we aim to provide the public with up-to-date and accurate information on potential diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics against COVID-19 and to map those initiatives in the area of COVID-19 we support to ensure transparency in this space. 
 
Innovative SMEs in the biotech industry are key to the development of solutions to fight this pandemic. However, all too often, these SME’s are severely underfinanced for a wide variety of reasons. Generally, investors perceive the credit risk of innovative biotech SMEs as too high, and equity funding takes too long to close. covidX is determined to support innovative SMEs’ projects in developing rapid interventions against COVID-19 through establishing ring-fenced risk-sharing facilities, with the aim to de-risk private investments in the domain to a globally competitive level. 
 
Finally, the current health crisis requires an effective and thoughtful but swift European response, in order to contain COVID-19. The EU as one of the wealthiest and most innovative regions has a responsibility to live up to its role. Therefore, this project is aimed at displaying the European response to COVID-19 in the area of promoting R&D efforts. We do so by mapping the landscape of relevant projects and their progress. We focus on European projects that develop interventions to prevent or cure COVID-19 within the next six months.  

how we work

covidX introduces companies engaged in the development of innovative products aimed at fighting COVID-19 to public promotional banks, as well as to commercial and impact investors. Thus, we promote the provision of non-dilutive venture loans to companies residing in the EU, and not yet invested in by major pharmaceutical companies. 

We are currently supporting  about a dozen European projects, and invite additional interested companies to get in touch with us here. This open call for expression of interest will remain active until March 31, 2021.  Each selected project is featured with a dedicated section on this website, with weekly updates on each project to be published here. 

covidX  is developed and supported by kENUP Foundation, the EU Malaria Fund and Acumen public affairs. We sincerely hope our efforts will help spread accurate information and a realistic perspective on how to solve the COVID-19 crisis by means of research and development.  

„Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. 
It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death.


D R.   T E D R O S    A .   G H E B R E Y E S U S
W H O ,  D I R E C T O R   G E N E R A L
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