Vaccines based on the AdVac^® technology belong to the second generation of vaccines, comprising Ad11-, Ad35-, and Ad49-based vectors and derivatives thereof. Since pre-existing immunity against these vectors is very limited, they allow effective delivery of small fragments of otherwise deadly pathogens to the immune system using a replication incompetent adenovirus vehicle.

AdVac^® vaccination vectors can be manufactured to high titers on a PER.C6^® cell substrate. AdVac^® vectors combine all the advantages of the commonly used adenovirus vector for vaccination, such as high production yields, strong immunogenicity and an excellent safety profile, together with accurate dose control of the vector-based vaccine. Thus, Crucell’s AdVac^®-based vaccines are expected to deliver consistent results in clinical studies.

AdVac^®-based vaccines for malaria, AIDS, hepatitis C, hemorraghic fevers, and tuberculosis have been successfully constructed and have been tested in pre-clinical vaccine models. Strong CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses were elicited by the AdVac^®-based vaccines as well as potent and neutralizing antibody responses. In all instances, the high immune response elicited upon vaccination against the pathogenic antigens resulted in completed protection of the vaccinated animals upon high dose challenge demonstrating the strengths of AdVac^® vectors.

Crucell has fully operational BSL-II laboratories with integrated upstream and downstream capacities up to a 10L scale. These units are used to develop purification methods closely resembling an end-stage manufacturing process. With this facility, Crucell has the ability to manufacture Ad11 or Ad35 vaccine vectors for comprehensive pre-clinical programs. Crucell has a fully operational GMP facility that has been designed as a multi-purpose production plant, which allows for the production of clinical-grade vaccines based on live vectors such as recombinant adenovirus. These products can be manufactured using PER.C6^® technology under serum-free conditions in formats ranging from roller bottles to bioreactors. Crucell is expanding the GMP production capacity to 100L working volumes.