MilliporeSigma signed a research agreement with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) of Seoul, South Korea, to help develop more scalable vaccine manufacturing processes. MilliporeSigma will provide funding and expertise in the areas of clarification and purification.
The IVI is a nonprofit international organization focusing on the discovery, development, and delivery of safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for global public health, according to Udit Batra, member of the executive board, Merck KGaA, and CEO, MilliporeSigma. The new collaboration between MilliporeSigma and IVI is aimed at improving the manufacturing process to deliver greater yield, allowing higher recovery and purer vaccines, added Batra.
“Complex manufacturing processes along with poor yield and recovery result in vaccines that are not easily affordable by resource-challenged countries,” he said. “Through our partnership with IVI, we will help create a more modern, scalable, and robust manufacturing process, which in turn will help increase access to life-saving vaccines in developing countries.”
Initially, the project will target a vaccine for typhoid, with the goal of applying findings to the manufacturing processes for pneumococcal, meningococcal, haemophilus, staphylococcus, streptococcus B, and other conjugated polysaccharide vaccines.