R78C

CDMO Recipharm and the University of Oxford have collaborated on malaria vaccines since 2016. Now, they have expanded their partnership as Recipharm will perform end-to-end manufacturing for two vaccines in early-stage trials. After combining on the development of five malaria vaccine candidates since 2016, Swedish CDMO Recipharm and the University of Oxford have expanded their collaboration to include additional manufacturing duties.For ongoing phase 1/2 trials, Recipharm will manufacture Oxford’s blood-stage malaria vaccine hopefuls R78C and RH5.1.Recipharm, which has already handled drug substance and drug product production for R78C, will now also take care of fill-finish services to meet the increased demand for vials for the ongoing trials.As for RH5.1, Recipharm will take over a role previously filled by another contract manufacturer, handling all aspects of production of the vaccine candidate, according to a June 9 press release.Blood-stage vaccines work by stimulating the immune system, decreasing the number of parasites in the blood and thereby reducing the severity of the disease.“Our ability to deliver drug substance and drug product for larger scales under GMP conditions makes us a strong partner for accelerating vaccine candidates from lab to clinic,” Greg Behar, CEO of Recipharm, said in a release.After seeing its revenue skyrocket by 30% in 2022 thanks to a partnership with Moderna to produce its COVID-19 vaccine, Recipharm has executed an ongoing transformation, mixing acquisitions and sell-offs. With the stagnancy of the CDMO industry, Recipharm has done more divesting of late, with the most notable move coming in 2024. Last year, the company inked a deal to sell seven manufacturing and development facilities—including five in its home country—to U.S. private equity firm Blue Wolf Capital.Meanwhile, Oxford has become one of the premier developers of malaria vaccines. In 2023, Oxford’s three-shot regimen R21/Matrix-M became just the second malaria vaccine endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) for children. It was authorized a year after GSK’s Mosquirix made the grade. Malaria vaccines have been challenging to develop. It took more than 30 years for GSK to get Mosquirix to the market.According to the WHO, there were 249 million cases of malaria around the world in 2022, with 608,000 deaths. In Africa, children under the age of 5 accounted for 76% of the malaria fatalities, the WHO said.