Amyris, Inc., a leading synthetic biotechnology company in Clean Health and Beauty markets through its consumer brands, and a top supplier of sustainable and natural ingredients, announced the signing of a Collaboration Agreement and License Agreement with the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) to advance a novel ribonucleic acid (RNA) vaccine platform, including accelerating the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The collaboration will combine IDRI's RNA vaccine platform, including IDRI's proprietary nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) platform, with Amyris's semi-synthetic squalene. This has the potential to offer differentiated advantages over other RNA vaccines, including superior scalability, efficacy, and sustainability.

Amyris will co-own intellectual property developed to create the COVID-19 vaccine, any rights in any combination of IDRI materials and Amyris squalene, the pre-clinical and Phase I clinical trial data, and the Clinical Study Report.

"We believe to have a differentiated vaccine platform that uses a replicating RNA molecule to express viral antigens, formulated and delivered with a nanostructured lipid carrier system that can be stockpiled for use across a variety of infectious diseases and cancers," said Dr. Corey Casper, Chief Executive Officer of IDRI. "We are delighted to be embarking on this critical program with Amyris and believe use of their novel, sustainable, semi-synthetic squalene will prove invaluable in our joint vaccine development efforts."

"We are excited to combine IDRI's expertise in vaccines with our synthetic biology platform to deliver an effective and sustainable vaccine for COVID-19," said John Melo, President and Chief Executive Officer of Amyris. "A much needed second generation vaccine will have a fast-follower pharmaceutical advantage and solve expected supply chain and manufacturing bottlenecks. Amyris has a strong research partnership with Universidade Católica Portuguesa. As part of this relationship we have advanced preliminary approval of a grant to fund the program through Phase 1 trials. We anticipate initiating a Phase 1 clinical trial around mid-2021."

Vaccines licensed from IDRI to Amyris are originally intended for COVID-19, plus up to three additional indications, and Amyris will have the right to develop and commercialize each such vaccine for all fields of use and all indications (excluding zika, yellow fever and Epstein-Barr Virus), including pandemic or seasonal influenza, and certain cancer treatments.

The vaccine development collaboration project for COVID-19 is expected to conclude in the first half of 2022.

About Amyris

Amyris (Nasdaq: AMRS) is a science and technology leader in the research, development and production of sustainable ingredients for the Clean Health & Beauty and Flavors & Fragrances markets. Amyris uses an impressive array of exclusive technologies, including state-of-the-art machine learning, robotics and artificial intelligence. Our ingredients are included in over 3,000 products from the world's top brands, reaching more than 200 million consumers. Amyris is proud to own three consumer brands - all built around its No Compromise? promise of clean ingredients: Biossance? clean beauty skincare, Pipette? clean baby skincare and Purecane?, a zero-calorie sweetener naturally derived from sugarcane. 

About IDRI

As a nonprofit global health organization, IDRI (Infectious Disease Research Institute) takes a comprehensive approach to combat infectious diseases and cancer, combining the high-quality science of a research organization with the product development capabilities of a biotech company to create vaccines and therapeutics. IDRI combines passion for improving human health with the understanding that it is not just what our scientists know about disease, but what we do to change its course that will have the greatest impact. Founded in 1993, IDRI has 55 employees headquartered in Seattle with more than 100 partners/collaborators around the world.