Dave Richardson Joins Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics Advisory Board
December 10, 2020
Today, Eyam announced the addition of Mr. Dave Richardson as our newest advisory board member.
“The addition of Mr. Richardson is significant for Eyam as we quickly advance testing of our COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Mr. Richardson brings extensive knowledge and background working with innovative, early-stage technology companies,” stated Ryan M. Thomas, CEO of Eyam.
Dave Richardson: Is an experienced inventor, executive, entrepreneur, investor, and founder of multiple innovative technology companies. Throughout his career, Dave has served on numerous public and private boards, with both national and international scopes of interest. As a champion of sustainability and the environment, he currently serves as a Director of GreenPower Motor Company and is an Advisory Board member to several innovative green tech companies. In addition, to his charitable board work and numerous philanthropic endeavors, Dave is passionate about mental health issues – their impact on the individual and the broader societal implications. In 2016 he co-founded the Stigma-Free Society charity where he currently serves as the Board Chair. He is currently the President and CEO of Octaform Systems Inc.
“Mr. Richardson is a prolific inventor with a wealth of experience in patenting novel technologies to revolutionize industry sectors. Given his passion to create a positive global impact, Eyam’s Board and I will lean on his advice to build Eyam into one of the world’s most innovative vaccine companies,” said Thomas.
Eyam recently announced the signing of an exclusive licensing agreement with the University of British Columbia to test and commercialize vaccine candidates with the following characteristics:
- Vaccine Platform: Eyam is advancing a next generation self-amplifying mRNA (SAM) vaccine platform, which requires very low doses (mgs) as tens of thousands of copies are made by transfected cells, which aims to boost the immune response to produce both B and T lymphocyte responses for long-lasting immunity
- Vaccine Candidates: In addition to the spike (S) protein, Eyam’s license with the University of British Columbia (UBC) allows for the inclusion of additional targets that may enhance vaccine immunogenicity.
- Safety: Nucleic acid-based vaccine manufacturing is safe and time-saving and bypasses the need to grow highly pathogenic organisms at a large scale, resulting in a lower risk of contamination with live infectious reagents and release of dangerous pathogens. SAM vaccines are also more potent at lower doses, and especially the lipid encapsulated SAM vaccines Eyam plans to test.
- Speed: The use of nucleic acid-based vaccines will allow for vaccines to be obtained in a short timeframe.
- Manufacturing: The manufacturing process makes Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) grade SAM a promising vaccine approach for filling the gap between emerging infectious disease and the desperate need for effective COVID-19 vaccines. The production procedure to generate mRNA vaccines is cell-free, simple and rapid if compared to production of whole microbes, or live attenuated or subunit vaccines. Quality control is achieved instantaneously and manufactured at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional vaccines.
- Distribution: Acceptable shelf-life with an anticipated greater stability at higher temperatures, making distribution easier especially for hard to reach regions and developing countries.
About Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics: Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics is a private, Canadian based company focused on the research and development of vaccines that are safe, efficacious and low dose. Eyam, was named to honour the village in Derbyshire that, in 1665-1666, chose to stay and brave near certain death rather than travelling and risk transmitting the plague to their neighbouring towns. In the end, 75% of Eyam’s residents did indeed die, but their surrounding neighbours were saved due to Eyam’s heroic and selfless quarantine.
For further information see:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2016.0618
