Viruses have been a threat to human health worldwide long before the Covid-19 pandemic. This is also because viral diseases are difficult to treat. Despite advances in vaccine research, there is still no effective protection against pathogens like influenza or Ebola. And the search for drugs to treat these diseases is also challenging.
To achieve a breakthrough in the development of new antiviral drugs, the Federal Agency for Leap Innovations therefore launched the Sprind Challenge “Broad-Spectrum Antivirals” two years ago. In it, teams compete in parallel with different solution strategies to find the most promising active ingredients based on new technology platforms in a three-year competition.
Capsitec relies on DNA origami
A jury of scientists and business experts has now selected four candidates from the remaining six teams to participate as finalists in the final stage of this innovation competition. One of them is the team from Capsitec in Planegg.
Capsitec uses DNA origami technology with its Virustrap solution to build traps for viruses on a nanoscale. To do this, the team led by Prof. Dr. Hendrik Dietz from the Technical University of Munich constructs half-shells made from single-stranded DNA that enclose and neutralize viruses. The size and shape of the shells can be flexibly adapted to different viruses.
By advancing to the final competition phase, Capsitec receives additional funding of €2.5 million. Total funding from Sprind thus increases to around €4.7 million over the three years of the competition. For the allocation of funds, the Federal Agency for Leap Innovations has established a new procedure for innovation funding in Germany: pre-commercial procurement. Compared to previous methods of government innovation financing, it is considered faster and its formal requirements less extensive. In this way, smaller teams and startups should be able to participate successfully without specialized knowledge of grant application procedures.
Through its LinkedIn channel, Capsitec announces:
“We are very proud to be among the selected companies. Over the past few years, the Federal Agency for Leap Innovations has been an invaluable partner, and we couldn’t be more grateful. As some can attest, it’s no easy task to change the world. It’s really great to have someone by your side who believes in you and constantly pushes you to go further.”
Sprind helps bridge the “valley of death”
“The Sprind Challenges have established themselves as an effective financing tool in a short time to bridge the ‘valley of death’ between basic research and market maturity. By financing different solution approaches over several years and evaluating their development progress, we can filter out the best solutions,”
Jano Costard, Challenge Officer at Sprind, explains.
“For these new drug candidates to be further developed and produced—so that they are available quickly if needed—an Advance Market Commitment (AMC) from the public sector is now needed to eliminate market failure, which paralyzes private investment in pandemic medicines.”
An AMC guarantees the purchase of products with clearly defined properties that still need to be developed. The market commitment is not made to specific companies, but is directed at all market participants who meet the pre-defined performance criteria of the product. This overcomes the decisive hurdle for investment: demand uncertainty. This elimination of demand uncertainty in turn enables investors such as venture capitalists or pharmaceutical companies to invest in the development of new technologies.
