Texas biotech community joins coronavirus fight

As people around the globe continue to grapple with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, a number of Texas biotech firms and researchers say they are answering the call to combat the spread of the illness.

Six people in Austin, including the wife of University of Texas president Gregory Fenves, have been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of Sunday, according to city public health officials. Gov. Greg Abbott has declared a state of disaster for Texas, which has more than 50 reported cases of the illness.

To prepare for a growing need for tests and to avoid crowding medical facilities, Abbott said drive-thru clinical testing will be made available in several major Texas cities, including in Austin, San Antonio and Dallas.

As part of its meeting on the state’s preparedness to respond to the virus, the Texas House Public Health Committee heard from industry organizations who said the biotech community is mobilizing to join in the fight.

Tom Kowalski, president of the Texas Healthcare and Bioscience Institute, was one of the people who testified at last week’s hearing.

He said his organization, which represents about 90 biotech companies in the state, sent out a survey to see which Texas firms are working on solutions related to the outbreak.

Kowalski said the organization has heard from more than 10 companies and is continuing to collect more responses.

“I think the ability for the Texas life sciences industry to respond specifically to the new coronavirus shows the strength and maturity we have as an industry,” Kowalski said.

Kowalski said their efforts involve chasing down potential vaccines with supercomputers, as well as putting up money to fuel research into test kits. It also includes research using baboons to better understand the new virus.

Texas companies working on the vaccine front

Austin-based Pure MHC, a subsidiary of Austin biotech firm Emergent Technologies, said the company is working to adapt its technology to help develop vaccines against COVID-19.

"Pure MHC has a powerful immune target discovery platform that can be applied to COVID-19 in order to discover novel biomarkers used to develop vaccines and other therapies," Emergent Technologies president Kris Looney said in a written statement.

Another Texas company -- The Woodlands-based contract manufacturer VGXI -- is working with a Pennsylvania company that announced in January that it has a vaccine candidate ready to be tested in FDA human clinical trials.

Christy Franco, VGXI’s senior manager for business development, said the company is not involved in the research that goes into the vaccine candidate, but is a leader in the complex processes that are required to manufacture DNA-based vaccines.

“They identify us as a major leader in the manufacturing aspect, so they bring the candidate vaccine to us and we can make it,” Franco said. “We throw all of the necessary resources in there to do this on accelerated timelines.”

Solutions for diagnostics

Development of vaccines and antiviral medication are only part of the equation when battling a pandemic, said Amy Walker, a senior policy director for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.

Walker, who also spoke to Texas lawmakers last week, said diagnostic tests are among the needs highlighted by government officials.

The FDA announced last month that it would consider emergency use authorization for all proposals involving diagnostic devices for the coronavirus. A similar policywas adopted in 2016 in relation to the Zika virus, according to the agency’s website.

In past outbreaks, Walker said, policies to expedite the FDA clearance process has proved beneficial to companies who are rushing to find therapies, vaccines and diagnostic methods.

Austin-based diagnostics device company Luminex is among the companies who are preparing to ask the FDA for the emergency authorization.

Luminex said last week that it has developed two nasal swab tests for diagnosing the virus, and said four clinical laboratories -- including Baylor Scott and White Health in Temple -- have conducted early testing of the new product.

The new tests, which require the use of the company’s analysis machines, Aries and Magpix, can produce results in a couple of hours, according to the company.

A Luminex spokesperson told the American-Statesman that the new test developed for its Aries diagnostics machine is able to produce results within two hours, while results for the test designed for the Magpix machine, is estimated to take about five hours.

“Though we are concerned about the outbreak and the safety of our communities, we are proud that we have the ability to offer laboratories and healthcare workers several solutions to detect and manage COVID-19,” a company spokesman said in a written statement.

The company said it will submit the tests to the FDA this month to be considered for emergency use authorization.

While new clinical tests could help expand options for diagnosing the coronavirus, companies like Austin startup Everlywell say there is also room for innovations in home testing kits.

Led by founder and CEO Julia Cheek, Everlywell has put up a $1 million incentive to fuel development of kits that can analyze swab samples collected at home.

As the virus spreads, Cheek said, fewer medical professionals will be available to conduct diagnostic testing. Testing methods that require people to travel to medical facilities could contribute to the spread of the virus, she said.

“Most people in biotech are focused right now on clinical testing samples, but once our health care facilities are overloaded -- which we may be a few weeks from now -- that will not be a possibility,” Cheek said.

In theory, Cheek said people who think they are infected would be able to use home testing kits to submit swab samples to laboratories without the help of a medical professional.

Cheek said the company has selected four accredited labs -- each receive $250,000 from Everlywell -- to develop home testing kits. Cheek said the company will not seek intellectual property from research produced by the $1 million incentive.

Supercomputers and monkeys

As companies work to develop and validate new treatments, vaccines and diagnostics, some researchers in the state are at work using more unusual technology to study COVID-19.

Supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas, for example, have already been used to track the spread of the new coronavirus.

TACC executive director Dan Stanzione said the center is adjusting its existing process for scheduling computation time for laboratories to prioritize work being done on COVID-19.

“We have a normal quarterly process where we’re handing out time, but obviously you have to disrupt that around this thing,” Stanzione said.

Stanzione said research being conducted is related to studies required for producing vaccines, as well as those needed to better understand the evolutionary history and long term effects of the virus.

“One part of the work is the computation that is needed, and the other is bringing the data resources together,” Stanzione said.

Elsewhere, researchers at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute are getting ready to test animals with samples of the new coronavirus at its San Antonio-based facility, which houses more than 2,000 monkeys.

CEO Larry Schlesinger said the institute plays an important role in the FDA’s clinical trial process before drug and treatment candidates can be tested in humans. The institute specializes in producing animal models of infectious diseases to test vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.

“The type of study that helps a regulatory agency like the FDA feel confident that you have a new therapy or vaccine is if you have the appropriate animal model,” Schlesinger said.

Schlesinger said animal testing will be able to show how the new coronavirus affects other living organisms outside of humans, and will also allow for testing for anti-viral treatments. It will also help scientists understand how the virus could mutate in the future.

Because monkeys are close genetic relatives to humans, Schlesinger said the institute uses different species of marmosets, macaques and baboons to test various infectious diseases.

Schlesinger said researchers at the institute have gotten a sample of the coronavirus, and aim to start animal testing within the next two weeks. He said the institute has been receiving calls from companies who are looking to test vaccine and treatment candidates.

“The outcome of such a study published would then become a standard from which we can study more diagnostic tests, therapies and vaccines,” he said.

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