Robert Dunne, CEO of Glycoselect, reflects on how Covid-19 transformed a ‘Cinderella’ sector of the pharmaceutical industry

When the laboratory team in GlycoSeLect received material from the production of a Covid-19 vaccine candidate, I watched their enthusiasm grow as they set about analysing the samples. They were excited by the prospect of contributing to a solution for the pandemic we have endured since early 2020.

Just as we were also excited five years ago, working with KBI Biopharma, our shareholder, on the process to manufacture a vaccine candidate for HIV prevention.

I started to think about this remarkable vaccine technology that primes our immune systems to be ready to fight an infection.

Edward Jenner followed the good scientific method of observation, hypothesis, experiment and conclusion, when he first observed that milkmaids did not appear to contract smallpox if they had a previous infection of cowpox.

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From 1796 onwards, Jenner then tested his thesis hypothesis by infecting children, including his own, with cowpox, and showing that they did not contract the killer disease. His work has led to the elimination of the deadly disease of smallpox from our planet.

Before Covid, the World Health Organisation estimated that vaccination was preventing up to three million deaths each year. The life-saving impact of vaccines is much greater now, even before taking into account the lives saved by HPV vaccines, which will show up in decades to come as cervical cancer deaths are prevented.

In my experience, vaccine development was the ‘Cinderella’ of the pharmaceutical industry until 2020. To combat Covid-19, vaccines were produced in less than a year, an unheard-of timescale. We are coming up to 24 months since SARS COV 2 virus emerged in Wuhan in China, and today 90% of Ireland’s adult population is vaccinated against Covid-19.

In 2019, no-one would have believed this was possible. When I speak to potential EIIS investors about our company and its innovative technology, I am struck by how many people share the enthusiasm of our scientists and want to support their work.

They see how by making the development process shorter and manufacturing easier, new medicines can be introduced faster and lives can be saved.

I’m continually marvelling at how much a 200-year-old technology has contributed to the well-being of the human race, and I am proud to be part of the industry that brings its benefits to all.

• GlycoSeLect develops innovative technologies for the analysis, characterisation and purification of biopharmaceuticals. Its EIIS funding round will fund development of its RPL technology in biopharmaceutical manufacturing, especially vaccine and cancer immunotherapy applications.