The ZAPI program is focused on the following goals to enable the delivery of targeted vaccines for animals and therapeutic antibodies for hospital use within just a few months of a future disease outbreak:
- Identify the best protective subunit vaccines and neutralizing antibodies against potential new zoonotic diseases or strains, such as bunyaviruses (i.e., Rift Valley fever virus and Schmallenberg virus) or coronaviruses (i.e., Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus or MERS Co-V);
- Define optimal manufacturing technologies and processes for these vaccines and antibodies to enable high-volume production capacity; and
- Gain alignment with regulatory authorities and policy makers and secure pre-approval of the new vaccine and antibody manufacturing methodologies for future emerging zoonotic viral diseases.
ZAPI project is not focused on the design of products (vaccines, antibodies/antibody-like molecules) but on a method for delivering rapidly those products. It aims at a full “development by design”, applicable to a wide range of future emerging pathogens. The Proof-of-principle will be obtained for the relevant and recently emerging target pathogens: the bunyaviruses Rift Valley Fever Virus (RVFV) and Schmallenberg Virus (SBV) and the Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which will be used as models.
In order to achieve its objectives the ZAPI project is organized around 6 workpackages (WP)