August 31, 2020

Pennsylvania Awards Philadelphia’s Biotech Chimeron Bio $600,000 for COVID-19 Vaccine Development

PHILADELPHIA, PA–Philadelphia-based biotech Chimeron Bio has been awarded $600,000 by the State of Pennsylvania to advance its COVID-19 vaccine.  Earlier this year, the Company announced that it has initiated a COVID-19 vaccine program leveraging its proprietary ChaESAR™ platform, a biosynthetic nanoparticle carrying a self-amplifying RNA.

Commenting on the award, Dr.  Jolly Mazumdar, CEO of the Company, said “I am thankful to Governor Tom Wolf and his administration for the vote of confidence bestowed upon Chimeron Bio. The award from our great state of Pennsylvania truly reflects Chimeron’s exceptional science and scientists and will go a long way towards expediting our vaccine to the clinic.”

Since the outbreak of the virus in the United States, Chimeron Bio quickly developed multiple candidate vaccines, and in less than 4 months demonstrated neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. 

“We initiated this program not to be the first, but to be the one vaccine that can be used to vaccinate the world. The initial studies demonstrating low dose efficacy confirm that if developed the right way, a single batch of the vaccine could vaccinate many more people across the globe. We thank the State of Pennsylvania for its support and recognition as we move fast to develop this vaccine and make it accessible to all,” said Dr. Afshin Safavi, Chairman of the Board.

Like other parts of the US and the world, Pennsylvania has been severely affected by the virus. “We are determined to make this virus a thing of the past and help Pennsylvanians and the global community move away from this deadly pandemic,” Dr.  Mazumdar said.

Related press releases:

https://dced.pa.gov/newsroom/wolf-administration-awards-10-million-to-23-entities-to-develop-effective-covid-19-vaccines-treatments-and-therapies/

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2020/08/27/pennsylvania-grants-10m-biotech-covid-19-vaccine.html?cx_testId=40&cx_testVariant=cx_8&cx_artPos=4#cxrecs_s

https://dced.pa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/VTT-Project-Awards.pdf

About Chimeron Bio

Chimeron Bio is a biotechnology company focused on the research of self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) towards development of novel RNA drugs and vaccines for various diseases. The company is using its proprietary ChaESAR™ platform to develop a pipeline in oncology, rare genetic disorders, and infectious diseases. For more information, visit www.chimeron.com.