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Health Innovation Company Joins Collaboration to Develop COVID-19 Vaccine

  • August 03, 2020

MRIGlobal, a health innovation company based in Kansas City, Missouri, has joined a collaboration with four health industry partners to work on a COVID-19 vaccine. The collaboration with MBF Therapeutics, Rymedi, SSI Strategy, Aldevron and MRIGlobal will seek to advance MBF Therapeutics’ SARS CoV-2 vaccine candidate COVE-001.

“Our goal is a better long-term solution to the current global pandemic,” said Thomas Tillett, CEO of MBF Therapeutics.

Under the collaboration, MRIGlobal will be responsible for pre-clinical testing. The Missouri company has been active in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic since the initial outbreak.

In March, MRIGlobal’s state-of-the-art biocontainment system was key in bringing 14 U.S. citizens who tested positive for COVID-19 home safely for medical treatment. Then in April, the company unveiled two new mobile labs that could help with the COVID-19 response.

Missouri’s health innovation sector has been on full display these past several months as companies and research centers across Missouri have been on the front lines of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. From Missouri being highlighted by Vice President Mike Pence after launching its partnership with Google to help health care providers connect with Missouri manufacturers and suppliers of personal protective equipment; to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis announcing that it is launching a clinical trial to investigate the drug chloroquine to treat COVID-19; to Kansas City being chosen as the testing ground for an experimental coronavirus vaccine; Missouri is continuing to lead the way in the fight against COVID-19.

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