Funding News

Pune's Immunoscript Life Science Has Secured $8.9 Million From CEPI to Develop a Freezer-Free RNA Vaccine — India's Answer to the Cold Chain Problem That Leaves Half the World Unvaccinated

By Mustafa Shariff, Editor in Chief · September 16,2026 · 2 mins read

Mustafa Shariff, Editor in Chief — Pune's Immunoscript Life Science Has Secured $8.9 Million From CEPI to Develop a Freezer-Free RNA Vaccine — India's Answer to the Cold Chain Problem That Leaves Half the World Unvaccinated

Summary

  • Immunoscript Life Science Secures $8.9M From CEPI: Pune Biotech's Freezer-Free RNA Vaccine Could Vaccinate the Half the World That Cold Chains Can't Reach
  • Immunoscript Life Science (Pune) secured $8.9M from CEPI to advance clinical testing of a thermostable, freezer-free RNA vaccine platform — eliminating cold chain barriers for Disease X preparedness and reaching populations WHO estimates half of current vaccines fail to reach.

"The cold chain requirement is not a minor operational inconvenience. It is a structural barrier that determines which populations receive effective vaccines and which do not. Ultra-cold storage at minus 70 degrees Celsius is technically and financially out of reach for most rural clinics in India, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Our platform eliminates this barrier entirely — by stabilising RNA molecules so they remain effective at ambient temperatures. A freezer-free RNA vaccine is not a scientific curiosity. It is the difference between a vaccine programme that reaches every child and one that reaches only the well-connected."

Immunoscript Life Science, a Pune-based Indian biotechnology company, has secured up to $8.9 million in funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to advance clinical testing of a next-generation RNA vaccine platform engineered for ambient temperature stability — eliminating the ultra-cold storage requirements that prevent most mRNA vaccines from reaching rural and low-resource populations. The funding was announced September 9-10, 2026.
The Problem Immunoscript Is Solving
Messenger RNA vaccines — proven dramatically effective in the COVID-19 pandemic — carry a structural limitation that fundamentally constrains their equitable reach: they require continuous refrigeration at ultra-low temperatures of minus 60 to minus 80 degrees Celsius throughout the entire supply chain from manufacturing plant to patient. Maintaining these temperatures requires specialised ultra-cold storage equipment, backup power systems, calibrated transport containers, and technically trained cold chain management staff — a combination of resources that is expensive, technically demanding, and often physically impossible in rural clinics in India, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and other low-income settings.
The consequence is severe. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately half of all vaccines globally fail to reach intended populations due to cold chain failures. For ultra-cold mRNA vaccines, the failure rate in resource-constrained settings is even higher. A vaccine that cannot survive the journey to the rural clinic is clinically equivalent to a vaccine that was never made.
Immunoscript's Thermostable Platform
Immunoscript's RNA platform addresses this problem through structural stabilisation — engineering the RNA molecules and their delivery system to maintain effectiveness at ambient temperatures rather than requiring continuous ultra-cold storage. The specific technical approach centres on nanoemulsion delivery systems that protect the RNA molecule and preserve its structural integrity across the temperature ranges encountered in real-world vaccine distribution in tropical and rural environments.
If validated, a thermostable RNA vaccine that can be stored and transported at room temperature removes the cold chain barrier entirely — making RNA vaccine access in rural India, Africa, and Southeast Asia as practically achievable as oral polio vaccine distribution today.
The Clinical Prototype: Rabies as the Proving Ground
CEPI's funding supports clinical testing using the rabies virus as a prototype pathogen. Rabies is a strategic clinical choice for validating a new vaccine platform: it is a well-characterised pathogen with established correlates of protection (the antibody levels required for protection are known), existing approved vaccine comparators, and a genuine unmet need in India (India accounts for approximately 35% of global human rabies deaths annually). If Immunoscript's RNA platform generates appropriate immune responses against rabies, it provides validated evidence that the platform can be rapidly adapted for novel pathogens — including the unknown Disease X that CEPI's portfolio is specifically designed to prepare for.
The clinical trials will incorporate AI tools to optimise human dosing regimens — determining the dose amounts and scheduling that generate protective immune responses with acceptable safety profiles, using computational modelling to accelerate dosing optimisation.
The CEPI 100 Days Mission Context
CEPI's funding of Immunoscript is explicitly positioned within the 100 Days Mission — the G7- and G20-supported global initiative to develop safe and effective vaccines against future epidemic threats within 100 days of identifying a new pathogen. The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine development demonstrated that 100-day vaccine development is technically achievable. Immunoscript's thermostable platform addresses the deployment side of the 100 Days Mission: a vaccine that can be manufactured and distributed rapidly in 100 days but cannot reach populations without ultra-cold chain infrastructure fails the equity dimension of the mission.
BHC Perspective
At Bengaluru Health Community, Immunoscript's $8.9 million CEPI funding is India's most significant vaccine innovation story of 2026 after Wockhardt's Zaynich FDA approval (June 2026 edition). A Pune biotech securing CEPI funding for a cold-chain-free RNA vaccine platform — that could reach populations that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines systematically could not — is the intersection of scientific innovation and global health equity that India's pharmaceutical sector has the technical capability to deliver.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is Immunoscript Life Science?
A: A Pune-based Indian biotech that secured $8.9 million from CEPI (September 2026) to advance clinical testing of a thermostable, freezer-free RNA vaccine platform — designed to eliminate ultra-cold storage requirements and reach populations that conventional mRNA vaccines cannot serve.
Q: What is the clinical prototype?
A: Rabies virus — a well-characterised pathogen with established immune correlates and genuine Indian unmet need (India accounts for ~35% of global human rabies deaths). Validating the platform against rabies provides evidence for rapid adaptation to Disease X threats.
Q: What is CEPI's 100 Days Mission?
A: A G7/G20-supported global initiative to develop safe and effective vaccines against unknown future epidemic threats (Disease X) within 100 days of pathogen identification. Immunoscript's thermostable platform addresses the equity gap in this mission — a vaccine that can be deployed rapidly but requires ultra-cold chain infrastructure fails to reach the populations most vulnerable in an outbreak.