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Shanghai Zerun Biotechnology Co., Ltd., which is a holding subsidiary of Yunnan Walvax Biotechnology Co., Ltd., recently signed a cooperation agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates’s Foundation on the research and development of Walvax and Zerun’s COVID-19 vaccine based on Pichia pastoris expression system.Zerun has received $1 million from the Gates’s Foundation for the pre-clinical study of recombinant protein of COVID-19.

It has been fund twice by the Gates Foundation. In September 2015, Zerun signed an agreement on the development of Recombinant Human Papillomavirus Bivalent vaccine with the Gates Foundation. In order toaccelerate the development and industrialization ofRecombinant Human Papillomavirus Bivalent (Types 16 and 18) Vaccine, Yeast, the Gates Foundation has funded $5 million to Zerun. At present, Zerun ‘s Recombinant Human Papillomavirus Bivalent (Types 16 and 18) Vaccine vaccine has successfully completed the phase III clinical study and obtained the clinical trial report. In November 2019, Zerun signed a 9-HPV vaccine development funding agreement with the Gates Foundation, and obtained a project fund of $2.5 million from the Gates Foundation to accelerate the clinical research and industrialization progress of recombinant human papillomavirus like particle vaccine (Pichia pastoris). And it prepared for the pre-certification of the WHO to supply large quantities of international organizations purchase on this basis. That is the third time that Zerun has obtained the support from the Gates Foundation. It is recognized that Walvax has further the strengths of technology and platform.