Akston Biosciences, a United States-based company that deals with insulin engineering, has collaborated with LakePharma, a United States-based CRDMO serving the biotechnology community, to produce commercial quantities of Akston's adjuvated COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AKS-452, it was reported on Tuesday.

The vaccine candidate is scheduled to commence phase 1/2 clinical testing later this month.

AKS-452 is a COVID-19-specific Fc fusion protein vaccine that is in commercial development and is designed to induce or boost a Th1/Th2 mixed immune response in patients against the Receptor Binding Domain of the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus spike protein. It is shelf-stable for weeks at up to 37 degrees Celsius and is engineered to use conventional antibody manufacturing techniques.