Open Orphan: Global Leader in Human Challenge Vaccine Development | Executive Chairman Cathal Friel

Trends in Med Tech

Open Orphan is paving the way for the large-scale adoption of “human challenge studies” for vaccine development.

Although this unique study design has been around for over 40 years and has been used to test a variety of vaccines and anti-virals for disease such as, cholera, influenza, asthma and RSV, among many others, the challenge model has recently gained a lot of attention globally due to Open Orphan’s pioneering its use for covid-19.

What’s more, these studies hold potential to supplement, or perhaps one day substitute, traditional phase 2 clinical trials and to be used as part of regulatory decision process for new vaccines.

Considering the current pace and global interest in these advancements, it’s not an overstatement to say that this could be a major leap for all stakeholders involved in supporting global public health through vaccines.

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Open Orphan (ORPH) is a publicly traded vaccine-development (CRO) company with offices in London, Dublin, Paris and the Netherlands. Its two main subsidiaries, hVIVO and Venn Life Sciences, are well-established in vaccine testing and regulatory consulting with a combined 50 years of experience servicing among the largest of vaccine manufacturers in the world.

As we learned from speaking with Cathal in this episode, the company has grown tremendously over the last two years and was profitable in Q4 2020, driven by its existing CRO-based services.

Among its several non-core assets is a hugely exciting data repository and analytics platform called Disease in Motion, which is about to be made commercially available to medical device companies (e.g., wearables) and vaccine manufacturers who would like to use its longitudinal disease progression data.

If you would like to learn more about these studies or to participate in one, check out these pages for more information:

Main: https://www.openorphan.com/human-challenge-programme

Participant recruitment (London): https://flucamp.com/

UK Covid Challenge participation: https://ukcovidchallenge.com/

Also check out the full videocast on our MedTech Trends YT channel: https://youtu.be/1sMAbk447mE

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Find out more about the Open Orphan:

https://www.openorphan.com/about-us/company-overview
Twitter: https://twitter.com/openorphan

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OpenOrphanPLC/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/open-orphan/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVSFYFrrKh3ZXGlmyiJ05_Q/featured

Other mentions in this talk:

Raglan Capital:

https://www.raglancapital.ie/

Open Orphan on AIM:

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/ORPH/open-orphan-plc/company-page?lang=en

Open Orphan on Euronext:

https://live.euronext.com/en/site-home-page