ExeVir receives EIB risk finance for multiple COVID-19 nanobody

With the resurgence of COVID-19 in China, ExeVir BIO sees commercial potential in the future treatment of immunocompromised people, who make up 3% of the population of Western industrialised countries. The VIB spin-off, which has already raised €42m in a Series A financing round, is using its llama antibody (VHH) technology platform to produce the multispecific nanobody XVR012 and plans to advance a Phase I /II clinical study and submit a marketing authorisation application within one year. XVR012 is a single domain nanobody that, according to the EIBN, binds to different epitopes in the highly conserved S1 and S2 region of SARS-CoV-2. Previous work at the groups led at Professors Xavier Saelens and Nico Callewaert demonstrated that based on epitope sequencing, the potency is not expected to be impacted by the Delta,  Alpha, Beta and Gamma variants of SARS-CoV-2.
 
In addition to developing XVR012, ExeVir also plans to expand its pipeline to other infectious diseases as part of its pandemic preparedness strategy. Antibodies against dengue fever are already in development.