On Jun. 19, 2020, GSK announced that a scientific collaboration with Clover Pharmaceuticals to develop an adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine had entered into human clinical trials. Clover announced the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study evaluating the company’s COVID-19 S-Trimer vaccine (SCB-2019) in combination with GSKs pandemic adjuvant system.

The study initiation follows promising preclinical results which demonstrated the beneficial effect of GSKs pandemic adjuvant for the SCB-2019 vaccine candidate, with high neutralizing antibody levels elicited in multiple animal species.

Preliminary safety and immunogenicity results for the Phase 1 study are expected in August 2020. In parallel, the planning for a global Phase 2b/3 vaccine efficacy trial has begun, with initiation targeted later in 2020.

The use of an adjuvant is of particular importance in a pandemic situation since it can reduce the amount of protein required per dose, allowing more vaccine doses to be produced and made available to more people.

GSK has announced several scientific collaborations globally to develop adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccines. GSK expects further studies to begin across the range of its collaborations, including with Sanofi, later this year.