Belgian biotech company Univercells awarded $12-million grant

Belgian biotech company Univercells has received a grant for $12 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Founded in 2013 by CEO Hugues Bultot, Univercells brings biology, manufacturing, and technology together to provide clients with solutions to the rising costs of vaccine production. The company does so by developing platforms for the creation of local bioproduction facilities.

The company intends to use the grant to develop a vaccine manufacturing platform that will make vaccines more affordable and accessible in developing countries.

Univercells will form a consortium with Batavia Biosciences and Natrix Separations in order to execute the development of the platform. Taking advantage of Univercells’ process intensification and integration capabilities and technologies; Natrix’s innovative single-use chromatography membrane platform; and Batavia’s vaccine development and manufacturing capabilities, the goal of this collaboration is to create a micro-facility for inactivated polio vaccine (sIPV) that will produce 40 million doses of trivalent vaccine per year at a manufacturing cost of less than $0.15 per dose.

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