Quantoom Biosciences S.A., a biotech with the mission to improve access to essential medicines and autonomy in bioproduction through innovation, have received grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walloon Region of Belgium for an amount of $7.5 million, and $6.4 million, respectively.
Under the terms of these agreements, Quantoom Biosciences will develop a preclinically validated mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) production system that addresses current and future bottlenecks in the production of mRNA vaccines and therapeutics to benefit people living in low- and middle-income countries. As part of the project, Quantoom Biosciences will work on a disruptive, fully integrated mRNA production line that will be made available for Research and Development (R&D) as well as Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) purposes. The automated production system will be designed to scale seamlessly from small scale (e.g., preclinical batches) to fully GMP compliant mass production meeting all capacity needs. The system will consist of multiple modules that are interconnected to ensure the continuous synthesis of mRNA products.
Both the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walloon Region have provided previous grants to support projects from Univercells S.A., the parent company of Quantoom Biosciences. At the end of 2021, the Univercells group entities will have received on a consolidated basis a total amount of $40.0 million (€35.7 million) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and $22.5 million (€20.1 million) from the Walloon Region of Belgium. These funds have been supporting the process development efforts of Univercells and its affiliates resulting in our scale-XTM and NevoLine technologies, and processes to improve vaccines, antibodies and vectors manufacturing.
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