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LI Biotech Speeds COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates To Italy

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Cure bet: If vaccine candidates prepared by Applied DNA’s LinearDNA manufacturing system perform as well as plasmid-based candidates prepared by Italian biopharma Takis Biopharma, the cross-Atlantic collaboration may be on to something.

By GREGORY ZELLER //

With preliminary lab tests looking good, an innovative Long Island biotech is rushing a quintet of potential COVID-19 vaccines overseas.

Stony Brook-based Applied DNA Sciences announced Wednesday that it has completed “design qualifications” and shipped five COVID-19 vaccine candidates to Italian biopharma Takis Biotech, a frequent collaborator working closely with Applied DNA to counter the coronavirus.

The vaccine candidates were produced using the Stony Brook biotech’s proprietary, polymerase chain reaction-based LinearDNA manufacturing system, which factored heavily in the two companies’ previous forays into cancer research.

Now, LineaRX – Applied DNA’s linear DNA-focused 2018 spinoff – is knee-deep in the global pandemic, churning out five vaccine candidates scheduled for immediate preclinical animal testing in Italy.

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