New UTMB Collaboration Designed to Accelerate COVID-19 Vaccine Development
MORRISVILLE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Q2 Solutions, a leading clinical trial laboratory services organization resulting from an IQVIA and Quest Diagnostics joint venture, today announced its collaboration with the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) to develop a novel assay for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) tests, an essential tool for rapid development of a Coronavirus vaccine. Once a viable assay is developed, Q2 Solutions labs will produce it for use in clinical trials to determine the effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine.
An assay is an analysis done to determine the biological or pharmacological potency of a drug. Compared with the conventional plaque-based neutralizing assay, UTMB’s novel reporter COVID-19-based test may provide several potential advantages, including increased sensitivity and dramatic increase in assay throughput because the assay time is shifted from multiple days to a single day.
“We have successfully produced a reporter virus system engineered with either luciferase or fluorescent tags to enable quantitative determination of vaccine effectiveness,” said Pei-Yong Shi, professor of Human Genetics at UTMB. “This test will enable Q2 Solutions to test sera from individuals participating in vaccine clinical trials to see whether the vaccine has induced antibodies that block infection of the virus and thereby answer critical questions in the vaccine development process.”
Current COVID-19 diagnostic tests available through governments and commercial laboratories determine whether a person is infected by the virus. The UTMB research focuses on prevention through vaccine development by creating technology that helps determine the effectiveness of a vaccine candidate protecting a person from COVID-19. The planned approach is to develop a high-throughput method to measure neutralizing antibody concentrations, the gold standard method for determining vaccine effectiveness.
“We are pleased to support UTMB in this important research to develop the COVID-19 assay that, once available, may help accelerate vaccine development,” said Kevin Jones, vice president and general manager, Bioanalytical, ADME, and Vaccine Laboratories for Q2 Solutions. “We are excited to take the assay developed from this research collaboration to production in our labs and enable vaccine developers to use it for large-scale human clinical trial testing to drive toward an effective COVID-19 vaccine.”
About Q2 Solutions
Q2 Solutions is a leading clinical trial laboratory services organization with end-to-end laboratory services and secure, enterprise-wide biospecimen and consent management solutions. With a relentless focus on quality and innovation, Q2 Solutions uses its global experience and scientific expertise to transform science and data into actionable medical insights that help customers improve human health. With a constant focus on innovation, Q2 Solutions works with clients, using a wide array of technology platforms, to ensure maximum efficiency and quality delivery for every study. A joint venture of IQVIA (formerly QuintilesIMS) and Quest Diagnostics, Q2 Solutions combines the best of each parent organization’s clinical trials laboratory services capabilities to fulfill its mission of treating each sample as if a life depends on it. To learn more, visit www.q2labsolutions.com.
About The University of Texas Medical Branch
Texas' first academic health center opened its doors in 1891 and today has four campuses, four health sciences schools, four institutes for advanced study, a research enterprise that includes one of only two national laboratories dedicated to the safe study of infectious threats to human health, a Level 1 Trauma Center and a health system offering a full range of primary and specialized medical services throughout the Texas Gulf Coast region. UTMB is an institution in the University of Texas System and a member of the Texas Medical Center.