Rome, 17 March 2020 - Takis, a biotech company in Castel Romano, Rome, announces that it is ready to test its Covid-19 vaccine on pre-clinical models.

The authorization comes from the Ministry of Health and represents the first step in bringing the vaccine to human use.

Takis researchers are the only ones in Italy and the first in Europe to access this phase of the experimentation.

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As early as the end of January, the Company had announced that it wanted to make a Coronavirus vaccine. In recent weeks, our Country has become one of the most affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, making the search for effective vaccines and therapies even more urgent. Today, Takis researchers reaffirm their commitment and that of Italian Research, making available their expertise in the field of vaccines and immunology. The first results of the pre-clinical trial will be available already in April. “This is a demonstration of how a group of good researchers has decided to accept a very difficult challenge and to roll up their sleeves, managing to quickly identify the best strategies for developing a vaccine and starting preclinical tests. The challenge has begun, "said Emanuele Marra, Director of the area of infectious diseases and Partner of Takis.

Takis' product is a genetic vaccine, which contains only a fragment of DNA: it is safe and induces a strong response from the immune system. It is based on a technology called electroporation, which consists of the injection into the muscle followed by a very short electrical impulse which facilitates its entry into the cells and activates the immune system. The development of our vaccine is now preparing to enter a very important phase, that of pre-clinical experimentation, which will provide preliminary data on its efficacy and tolerability and which will be carried out in part thanks to the collaboration of the Spallanzani Institute in Rome, which will conduct experiments on cells to test the vaccine's ability to block virus replication.
"The information obtained from these initial studies will not only serve as a basis for vaccine development but will be extremely useful for creating immunization tools for the generation of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies." Giuseppe Roscilli, Director of the Monoclonal Antibody Development Area and Takis partner said.

"If the results are satisfactory, the vaccine could already be tested on humans in Autumn." - said Luigi Aurisicchio, Founder and Administrator of Takis. "Takis is the only company in Italy to have reached this point. Objective achieved thanks to the dedication of our researchers and without any type of external financing. But now Takis needs the collaboration of the institutions and anyone who is able to contribute, for this purpose we ask that to establish an open dialogue with national and European agencies in order to speed up the next steps towards clinical trials. Also for this reason, in recent days in the absence of public funding for Research, we have launched a crowdfunding campaign that aims to quickly collect the amount necessary to access the next stages of vaccine development, i.e. large-scale vaccine preparation and the execution of the clinical study. "
Takis represents an Italian excellence and is the demonstration of how important it is to invest in scientific research to preserve people's health. Hopefully, Italy will understand it soon.

For the Crowdfunding campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/f/il-vaccino-italiano-contro-covid1