Infectious Diseases

The COVID-19 pandemic was a true global crisis, with the vast majority of the world’s population affected by travel bans and lockdown. With the immediate public health and economic consequences of the pandemic apparent soon after its beginning in December 2019, the attention of the research and biotech community swiftly turned to finding vaccines and treatment for the new threat.

Quantics has been involved in a randomised & controlled clincial trial examining the safety and efficacy of a novel treatment method for COVID-19 in the home setting. The Quantics team provided sample size calculations for the study, as well as a full statistical analysis for both primary and secondary endpoints.

Ebola is a disease which sends shivers down the spines of public health administrators. A fast spreading virus with a case fatality rate of up to 90% in some outbreaks, the need for vaccines to counter the threat of Ebola has become apparent since the 2014-16 outbreak which affected much of West Africa and spread to several countries outside the region.

Quantics is involved in supporting trials for a vaccine targeting the Ebola virus by investigating responses to the vaccine in non-human models with the aim to correlate those responses with human immunity to create a predictive model. This will enable researchers to predict the efficacy of the vaccine in exposed subjects. This work is taking place alongside a human clinical trial investigating directly the efficacy of the vaccine.

While natural cases of Anthrax in humans are thankfully rare today, the threat of a bioterrorist attack using Bacillus Anthracis spores is high on the priority list of disaster preparedness for many of the world’s governments. These spores are naturally occuring in soil and survive easily in the environment, meaning they represent a prime target for a powerful bioweapon. Anthrax vaccines are, therefore, of great importance as the world develops biodefence capabilities.

Quantics has been involved in developing and testing an anthrax vaccine for national biodefence preparedness. Specifically, the team supported the design of a potency assay to support testing of batches of the vaccine, which progressed to conducting routine batch release analyses. This process encompassed the full bioassay life cycle, including tech transfer and reference bridging studies.