News Covid-19 Updates Medical Extraction Research
ZYUS Life Sciences is working on a possible COVID-19 vaccine

ZYUS Life Sciences, says it is looking to develop and express a protein that has a potential antigen for a COVID-19 vaccine.

The Saskatoon-based licensed producer specializes in bio-pharmaceutical plant technology to produce medical cannabis products for the Canadian market. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it is refocusing its expertise to help combat the virus.

The company is collaborating with the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) at the University of Saskatchewan to test plant produced antigens in a vaccine for COVID-19.  

“Developing vaccines in plant cells has multiple potential benefits, including the ability to quickly produce a vaccine at scale, having no animal pathogen contaminants, and lower bioreactor processing costs,” said ZYUS CEO, Brent Zettl. “This is an important initiative for us as an organization, and as citizens looking to make a difference, ZYUS is committing research and development expertise, resources and energy to help find a vaccine now and to develop systems to help respond in the future.”

ZYUS plant-based method is one of several that VIDO-InterVac is exploring in an effort to expand vaccine development against this novel coronavirus. ZYUS plans to extract enough specific protein through its plant expressions system by summer 2020 in order for VIDO-InterVac to determine its effectiveness in animal models of COVID-19.  

ZYUS is a Canadian-based life sciences company focused on the global development and commercialization cannabinoid-based therapeutics and product candidates.