S.Korea's EuBiologics to receive support from Gates Foundation

South Korea's biopharmaceutical company EuBiologics Co. announced on Wednesday that its meningococcal pentavalent conjugate vaccine EuMCV5 under development has been selected as a joint project by the Research Investment for Global Health Technology Foundation (RIGHT Foundation) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In the future, it will be developed as a public vaccine targeting the meningococcal belt in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Gates Foundation is a charitable donation and research support foundation established by Bill Gates in 2000 at the recommendation of his ex-wife Melinda Gates.

The RIGHT Foundation is an international health research fund established in 2018 through the trilateral cooperation of the Korean government, corporations and international funding organizations.

In the future, the RIGHT Foundation will support research funds in the form of milestones (technical fees for each stage) throughout phases 1 to 3 of clinical trials.

Meanwhile, the Gates Foundation will provide intensive support for conducting phase 3 clinical trials through the international non-profit organization PATH.

EuBiologics plans to conduct phase 1 clinical trials of EuMCV5 at Seoul National University Hospital starting next month with the support.

Meningococci are bacteria found in the nasopharynx of humans and are the cause of meningococcal meningitis and meningococcemia. Across the world, 500,000 meningococcal cases occur each year, of which 75,000 are reported to die.

"We will start global clinical trials including in Africa as soon as domestic clinical trials end this year, and we will be able to supply them to the public procurement market within the next three to four years after going through processes such as WHO pre-qualification approval," said a company official.

Write to Yoorim Kim at youforest@hankyung.com