A European consortium to combat new emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential
e-FabRIC is a European consortium project that aimed at developing an innovative broad-spectrum antiviral therapy to combat new emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential, particularly those caused by viruses of the Sarbecovirus family
About
e-FabRIC will develop a broad-spectrum antiviral therapy based on a new hyperimmunization strategy for generating equine immunoglobulins having a broad neutralizing specificity against several virus of the same subfamily. e-FabRIC will address the Sarbecovirus family specifically identified for its high pandemic potential risk.
Context
The Covid-19 crisis revealed the need for healthcare systems worldwide to be better prepared for potential future health emergencies. Improving health protocols implies the development of European sovereignty in public health and the implementation of coordinated response between European countries. The EU’s pandemic preparedness plan clearly supports innovation to develop broad spectrum antiviral drugs for providing effective therapeutic solutions to meet well-identified medical needs.
To meet these major societal and public health challenges, e-FabRIC ambition is to develop an effective broad spectrum therapeutic solution, ready to be used in case of emergency.
Why Sarbecoviruses?
Considered to be one of the riskiest family of viruses, Sarbecoviruses are responsible for severe respiratory pathologies in humans, coupled with a high mortality rate and strong mutagenic capabilities. Sarbecoviruses are zoonotic as they originate in animals before spilling over into humans1,2. New sarbecoviruses are likely to emerge, hence warranting the need to develop preventive and therapeutic solutions to counter possible new epidemics and pandemics with coronaviruses more swiftly and effectively in the future.
Ambition of the project
e-FabRIC’s aims to develop a new class of broad-spectrum antiviral therapy, using an innovative hyperimmunization method.
This treatment will address emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential caused by viruses from the Sarbecovirus family. To ensure the broad-spectrum efficacy of this passive immunotherapy, the consortium will develop equine polyclonal antibodies based on Fabentech technology. e-FabRIC will be the first European project to use this kind of approach to develop a treatment able to neutralize several viruses from the same family and their potential variants.
The work conducted by e-FabRIC will pave the way for the development of new treatments addressing other highly pathogenic virus families with pandemic potential.
Technology
e-FabRIC technology is based on horses hyperimmunization with a mosaic antigen structure, presenting at its surface 8 virus antigens from the Sarbecovirus family. Fabentech technology enables the highly efficient purification of equine potent polyclonal antibodies to produce F(ab’)2 antibodies fragments that can recognize and bind to the virus or toxin, thereby stopping disease progression. The F(ab’)2 antibody fragments generated by e-FabRIC are expected to display a unique and very wide neutralizing activity spectrum.
Why choose polyclonal antibodies approach?
Polyclonal antibodies recognize and bind to multiple sites (called epitope) of the virus. This broad binding capacity enhances their efficacy against diverse strains and variants of the virus. The high diversity of polyclonal antibodies (and their derived F(ab’)2) are generated with the immunogenetic diversity of all the hyperimmunized horses.
Mode of action of broad spectrum polyclonal antibodies
A European therapeutic product
In pandemic preparedness context, the needs of broad-spectrum antiviral therapy are now well identified. The ambition of e-FabRIC is to rapidly assess a safe and effective therapeutic solution, demonstrating efficacy and safety profile in human population.
To ensure European sovereignty, all the process will take place in EU: production of the mosaic antigen, hyperimmunization, and the whole GMP process. The EU preparedness highlights the need to strengthen the regulatory path for pandemic preparedness drug. e-FabRIC will develop a full regulatory pathway by developing in advance all analytical methods to secure the therapeutical development. Partners will work closely with the Authorities to define the best regulatory path for this novel therapeutic product.
At the end of the project, e-FabRIC will deliver a fully European treatment that can be produced locally, ensuring European sovereignty and preparedness against emerging infectious diseases from Sarbecovirus family.
Scientific Board
Prof. Veas is a molecular viral immune-physio-pathologist, who has been studying the role of crucial HIV surface structures…
Prof. Enjuanes is a molecular virologist expert in virus reverse genetics and pathology. He has been working for 42 years in the…
Dr. Jungback is a veterinarian, and she was Head of Veterinary Virology at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (Federal Agency for Sera and Vaccines)…
Coordination
Anaïs Belledant
Anaïs Belledant, the coordinator of e-FabRIC, is Innovation Project Manager at Fabentech. She has an international profile having obtained a bachelor’s in biology in the USA and a PhD in Molecular Medicine at Laval University Canada. She experienced an innovation project manager in biopharma over 8 years. She has over 10 years’ experience in International and European project coordination. She currently serves as WP leader of the highly successful and very positively assessed European Project EPIC-CROWN-2 and COUNTERACT.
Samy Strola
Samy Strola, PhD in Physics, is a former researcher having worked in public and private organizations in Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France. His responsibilities progressively evolved towards project management and coordination, with focus on the technological innovation themes. Over the past 15 years, he accompanied numerous R&D&I projects helping coordinators in the writing of proposal for EU and national grants and supporting them in the PMO functions. In 2021, he founded Strola Consulting, which offers services for grant writing design and preparation, project feasibility analysis and management of funded projects.
News & Events
e-FabRIC is a scientific project involving numerous European stakeholders. From local gatherings to global initiatives, we provide comprehensive coverage to keep you informed.
e-FabRIC consortium announces the achievement of the first milestone: developing mosaic nanoparticle antigen from eight sarbecoviruses
The Howarth Group at the University of Cambridge, a partner at e-FabRIC, has manufactured and delivered an innovative mosaic antigen, obtained from the conjugation of
Press Release
Fabentech awarded €7.7m from the European Commission as coordinator of the e-FabRIC consortium to develop an innovative broad-spectrum therapy against emerging viruses with pandemic potential
Launch Event
We are pleased to announce the official launch of e-FabRIC on January 22, 2024. This significant milestone was marked by a pivotal kick-off meeting held
Timeline
Media Scientific Activities
One of the e-FabRIC great ambitions’s is to pave the way for future therapies with mosaïc antigens. Our work and significant achievements will be published and shared among the scientific community, and beyond.
Reports
e-FabRIC will publish reports and policy briefs twice a year to assess the progress of the project. The first publication will be made during 2024 as we advance on our journey against Sarbecoviruses.
REFERENCES: 1. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) (who.int) | 2. Liu, B., Zhao, P., Xu, P. et al. A comprehensive dataset of animal-associated Sarbecoviruses. Sci Data 10, 681 (2023)
