CSL : Global Role in Battling COVID-19

CSL's Global Role in Battling COVID-19

Here is how CSL is working around the world with academia, industry and governments to combat the novel coronavirus COVID-19

10 Dec 2020

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• CSL Behring is part the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance, an unprecedented industry partnership to develop a potential plasma-derived therapy for treating COVID-19. The CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance is developing an investigational anti-coronavirus hyperimmune intravenous immunoglobulin (H-Ig) medicine for treating hospitalized adults at risk for serious complications of COVID-19 disease. The Inpatient Treatment with Anti-Coronavirus Immunoglobulin (ITAC) Phase 3 clinical trial sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is under way with the first patients enrolled in early October. If successful, the Alliance's H-Ig may become one of the earliest treatment options for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
• The CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance, which includes CSL Behring, has joined the 'The Fight Is In Us' campaign - a coalition of world-leading medical and research institutions, blood centers, life science companies, technology companies, philanthropic organizations, and COVID-19 survivor groups has come together to support the rapid development of potential new therapies for patients with COVID-19. The coalition is seeking to mobilize tens of thousands of people in the United States who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate their blood plasma, which contains vital antibodies that have fought off the disease and could now help others do the same.
• CSL Behring Australia is developing an anti-SARS-CoV-2 plasma product for the Australian market with the potential to treat people with serious complications of COVID-19, particularly those whose illness is progressing towards the need for ventilation. The investigational product, to be known as COVID-19 Immunoglobulin, is under development at the company's advanced manufacturing facility located in Broadmeadows, Victoria.
• CSL and AstraZeneca have agreed for CSL to manufacture approximately 50 million doses of the Oxford University vaccine candidate AZD1222, for supply to Australia with first doses scheduled for release early 2021, following successful clinical trials. The vaccine will be manufactured at CSL facilities in Australia.
• In June 2020, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) and CSL announced they would together fund the development and manufacture of University of Queensland's 'molecular clamp' enabled vaccine. Key activities include late stage clinical trials, scale-up and manufacture should the vaccine be successful. The agreement follows the efforts that UQ, with the support of CSL, The Doherty Institute, ANU and CSIRO embarked on together at the outset of the pandemic in early 2020.
• Donation of Seqirus' well-established adjuvant technology - MF59® - to multiple entities searching for a COVID-19 vaccine, including the University of Queensland vaccine development program. MF59® is used in the company's adjuvanted seasonal flu vaccine for the over-65 age group -- one of the most vulnerable populations to COVID-19. Adjuvants can help improve immune response and reduce the amount of antigen needed for each vaccine, enabling more doses to be manufactured more rapidly. In parallel, Seqirus remains focused on the production of seasonal influenza vaccines for upcoming season, the importance of which is very much underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Launching a clinical trial into the use of CSL312 (garadacimab, Factor XIIa antagonist monoclonal antibody) to treat patients suffering from severe respiratory distress, a leading cause of death in patients with COVID-19 related pneumonia. The first patient enrolled in a Phase 2 study to assess the safety and efficacy of the potential treatment in July.
• Evaluating additional assets in our portfolio and partnerships with external researchers for potential use in the fight against COVID-19.
• Partnering with SAB Biotherapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, to advance and deliver a novel immunotherapy targeting COVID-19. The potential therapy would be produced without the need for blood plasma donations from recovered COVID-19 patients. Clinical trials could begin this summer in North America.
• Additionally, from the time the coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan, China - where CSL Behring has a manufacturing facility - the company has been assisting in the fight against COVID-19 in a number of ways including offering expertise, technologies, equipment and materials on a humanitarian basis.

For the latest information from CSL around the company's work in the fight against COVID-19, please visit: www.csl.com; www.cslbehring.com; www.seqirus.com.

About CSL
CSL (ASX:CSL) is a leading global biotechnology company with a dynamic portfolio of life-saving medicines, including those that treat haemophilia and immune deficiencies, as well as vaccines to prevent seasonal and pandemic influenza. Since our start in 1916, we have been driven by our promise to save lives using the latest technologies. Today, CSL - including our two businesses, CSL Behring and Seqirus - provides life-saving products to more than 70 countries and employs more than 26,000 people. Our unique combination of commercial strength, R&D focus and operational excellence enables us to identify, develop and deliver innovations so our patients and communities can live life to the fullest. For more information about CSL Limited, visit www.csl.com

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