NEC has decided to embark on the development of a next-generation vaccine against coronavirus by utilizing the latest AI = artificial intelligence and other technologies.
NEC held an online meeting on the 8th, and announced that it will start developing next-generation vaccines that can deal with more than 100 types of coronaviruses such as new corona, SARS, and their mutant viruses.
Current vaccines also have issues such as the need for booster vaccination due to the effects of virus mutations.
Under these circumstances, the company aims to develop a vaccine that is resistant to virus mutations and has long-lasting immunity by utilizing cutting-edge AI and other technologies for coronavirus gene data.
In addition, it has been decided that this development will receive approximately 600 million yen in financial support from the CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Infectious Diseases Innovation), a global collaboration organization for vaccine development.
For the next two years, we will work with the University of Oslo Hospital in Norway to design and confirm the effectiveness of the vaccine, and then aim to commercialize the vaccine with a pharmaceutical manufacturer in the future.
NEC Chairman Nobuhiro Endo said, "By utilizing cutting-edge AI, we would like to develop a vaccine for the next pandemic that cannot be easily realized by existing methods."