The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. VIDO will be able to participate in providing NIAID’s preclinical services for biopharmaceutical product development in two main areas: process development and cGMP manufacture and related activities. The seven-year IDIQ contract is valued up to U.S. $30 million.
VIDO’s vaccine development center will play an important role in providing services that will help a wide variety of researchers obtain the critical data needed to advance products, partnerships, and complete studies needed to enter clinical trials, according to Volker Gerdts, DVM, director and CEO, VIDO.
The completion of VIDO’s vaccine development center was the first step in establishing the organization as Canada’s Center for Pandemic Research. Other key aspects of the development include an expanded scientific team, establishing containment Level 4 capacity, and building a new animal facility that can house a variety of species.
“The opportunity to engage agencies like the NIAID to use our vaccine development center ties directly into VIDO’s international engagement strategy,” explained Gerdts. “Infectious diseases are a global issue and VIDO is making an increasingly broad and global impact on vaccine development.”
