Vaccine developer Ethris, which recently received $5 million in funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) for development of spray-dried RNA vaccines for nasal delivery, has announced that EU4Health has awarded the company a €10 million grant to support research on ETH47, an mRNA-based antiviral designed specifically for respiratory delivery. Development of ETH47 has also received financial support from Cipla and the Gates Foundation.
At the beginning of 2025, Ethris said that it would advance intranasal ETH47 into a Phase 2a trial this year. The company also recently announced that it had partnered with Lonza on development of spray-dried formulations of vaccine candidates for inhaled delivery.
The new NoVir research program will run from the beginning of May 2025 through the end of April 2027 and will include studies of ETH47’s effectiveness against influenza in healthy volunteers, against rhinovirus in asthma and COPD patients, and against against paramyxoviruses orthomyxoviruses, coronaviridae, and bunyaviruses in pre-clinical models. A study evaluating addition routes for administration will also be included.
Ethris CEO Carsten Rudolph commented, “The EU4Health grant is a significant validation of ETH47’s pioneering approach and its potential to offer a paradigm shift in the treatment and prevention of respiratory and broader systemic infections. ETH47’s ability to act at virus entry sites, combined with its room-temperature stability and potential synergy with existing antivirals, positions it as a differentiated and scalable solution for pandemic preparedness. The funding enables us to advance ETH47’s clinical development and explore its wider applications beyond respiratory conditions, to address additional critical unmet needs in high-risk populations.”
Read the Ethris press release
