Campaign for a COVID-19 Vaccine

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In 2019, in response to longstanding requests from Catholic laity, the Institute launched a new "Campaign for Cures" to develop ethical human cell lines that would be used in the bio-manufacturing of vaccines, protein therapeutics, gene therapy and cell therapy.  To achieve this objective, immortalized human cell lines are required in bio-manufacturing.  For over a half century, it has been an unspoken view among scientists that only fetal cells are suitable sources for producing immortalized cells.  However, since the Institute has the largest pipeline of human adult stem cells in the world, the Institute was poised to covert human adult stem cells into immortalized human cells. 

At the outset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Institute was poised to use human adult stem cells to develop first-in-class vaccine platforms for COVID-19.  First, the Institute developed methods to immortalize human adult stem cells.  The "Campaign for Cures" focuses on developing a vaccine for COVID-19 and provide a long-term platform to create vaccines for future novel coronavirus. 

While the federal government is supporting a small number of COVID-19 vaccine candidates through the Warp Speed program, there are serious ethical and scientific shortcomings among these vaccine candidates.  Some of these vaccines are using aborted fetal cell lines.  Additionally, the majority of these vaccines are using methods that do not have a track record of success in achieving FDA-approved vaccines.  Unfortunately, the Warp Speed program is not providing sufficient financial support to deploy tried and true approaches that have been the basis for producing vaccines for the past half century for diseases like small pox and polio.  Moreover, some of the vaccine approaches that are used in the Warp Speed program can only be used once and do not provide a long-term solution to produce subsequent vaccines if COVID-19 significantly mutates or if a novel coronavirus arises in the future.  Killed viruses and attenuated live viruses vaccines have been the gold standard for producing vaccines against novel viral infections.  There are very few COVID-19 attenuated live vaccines in development around the globe.  The "Campaign for Cures" is devoted to develop an attenuated live vaccine and a new-type of subunit vaccine, which are not pursued by "Operation Warp Speed".

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The first phase of this research is to produce the reagents to create a new type of subunit recombinant protein vaccine and an attenuated live vaccine.  It is anticipated that the cost for Phase 1 will require $325,000 and will take 6-9 months to develop contingent on raising the funding. Phase 2 will require a substantial more financial support because it requires extensive animal testing to evaluate efficacy and safety.  Phase 2 will require at least 1-1.5 years to complete to develop sufficient preclinical data to satisfy regulatory requirements before initiating a clinical trial, which will be contingent upon successful fundraising.  To view a video of the Institute's COVID-19 vaccine program, go to this link.  We have also included a link to answers to frequently asked questions regarding our vaccine program.

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 Please join this important campaign by making a meaningful, tax-deductible contribution and earmark your donation towards our "Campaign for Cures" program. The John Paul II Medical Research Institute is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity, as defined by the Internal Revenue Service. Your gift to the John Paul II Medical Research Institute may qualify as a charitable deduction for federal tax purposes as permitted by law. The support of donors is at the heart of advancing research and education at John Paul II Medical Research Institute. Your generous donations will advance the development of a COVID-19 vaccine in a fashion that reflects pro-life values.