New Hungarian innovation could speed up vaccine production

Sentimento, which makes equipment for the pharma, food and chemicals industries, has developed a complex system for accelerating the production of egg-based vaccines in a project with Fluart Innovative Vaccines and the University of Debrecen.

Sentimento told MTI that the partners were awarded around HUF 800m from the National R+D+I Fund to support the HUF 1.1bn, a four-year project.

Sentimento Ltd. has spent four years developing a complex machine system that analyses the usability of the eggs to be tested, cuts and aspirates them, and controls the aspirated material, in addition to the purity required in the pharmaceutical industry. Its daily capacity is 27,500 eggs. Technical manager Norbert Imre Imre told MTI that the solution developed could fill a significant niche market both at home and abroad.

With the prototype machine, they can automate the most complex and time-consuming part of egg-based virus propagation, thus speeding up the production of antibodies. Sentimento Ltd. is confident that mass production can start in 2025 and sales are planned to start in 2026, with an expected 30 percent increase in turnover. They have already received a lot of interest from abroad, he added.