On Jul. 27, 2020, Amyris and the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) announced the signing of a binding term sheet for a planned COVID-19 RNA (ribonucleic acid) vaccine technology program. The program combines IDRI’s expertise in combating infectious diseases with Amyris’ fermentation platform technology, with the goal to create semi-synthetic squalene-based adjuvants at scale.

IDRI’s RNA vaccine platform is expected to offer significant differentiated advantages over other RNA vaccines currently in development and will be further enhanced by a scalable Amyris adjuvant.