Open Orphan plc (LON:ORPH), a rapidly growing specialist CRO pharmaceutical services company which is the world leader in the testing of vaccines and antivirals using human challenge clinical trials has announced the signing of a £2.5 million contract by hVIVO, a subsidiary of Open Orphan, to conduct an Influenza human challenge study with a US biotechnology company.
The study is expected to commence at hVIVO’s 24-bedroom quarantine clinic in East London in H2 2021 and to be fully completed by year end 2021, generating £2.5m of revenue. This contract builds on the Company’s recent challenge study contract wins in RSV and COVID-19 and demonstrates the breadth of Open Orphan’s service offering and the expertise within the Group as a world leader in its field.
For this study, Venn Life Science’s Paris team will complete the biometrics, demonstrating how the various parts of the Open Orphan plc Group can work together to deliver high-quality services to clients. Venn’s Paris team are highly regarded in the field as one of the leading providers in this area which is a perfect complement to the London offering.
Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman, Open Orphan, said:
“We are delighted to be conducting this influenza challenge study, recent events have highlighted the importance of treatments for viral infections such as influenza and we are seeing an increased level of interest amongst both pharma and biotech in developing innovative new vaccines, antivirals, and therapeutics.
The Company is pleased to be continuing to deliver on our pipeline of opportunities. This has been due to the exceptional work from the hVIVO team, building on the Company’s long history as the world leading challenge study provider. Both the team and I are excited to see the progress being made by the Group and look forward to continuing the momentum as we rapidly grow the business to maximise shareholder value.”
We spoke to Cathal Friel about todays news who said:
“This exciting new contract builds on our recent challenge study contract wins in RSV and COVID-19 and demonstrates the breadth of Open Orphan’s service offering and the expertise within the Group as a world leader in its field and with this study our East London Queen Mary Bio-Enterprise facility is now close to fully booked out until the end of 2021. This contract demonstrates what we have been saying in recent weeks and months that we are now entering a decade of expenditure on vaccine development, we have had 20 years of huge investments by government and pharma around the world developing oncology treatments.
There has also been 10+ years of gene therapy investment around the world, but for 30 years there has been minimal investment in vaccines worldwide by both government and pharma companies and as such, we are now in a pandemic situation. However, we firmly believe that governments and companies around the world, as a result of the pandemic are going to make enormous catch up investments in vaccines so as to ensure that we are never faced by another pandemic again, and as part of that process, Open Orphan, as the world leader in the testing of vaccines and antivirals is really well placed to capitalise on this decade of exceptional growth in vaccine development.”
Interested in becoming a volunteer?
hVIVO recruits many of its volunteers for its challenge study clinical trials through its dedicated volunteer recruitment website, www.flucamp.com. hVIVO welcomes volunteers to take part in our clinical trials under expertly supervised conditions, to further medical research, and help us to take the understanding of respiratory illnesses to a new level. Volunteers are central to the work that we do; our studies focus on testing new treatments on real people, in a safe, controlled, clinical environment.
Further details on all aspects of our volunteer programs including testimonials from previous volunteers can be found at www.flucamp.com.
If you are interested in being contacted and provided with details about future COVID-19 human challenge study research, please leave your contact details at www.UKCovidChallenge.com.
