SVX-24 is designed to improve upon the 13-valent PCV standard of care by covering the additional eleven strains that are responsible for the majority of residual pneumococcal disease currently in circulation in both the United States and European Union and associated with high case-fatality rates, antibiotic resistance and/or meningitis. The company believes it can achieve this by employing its cell-free protein synthesis platform, which is comprised of the XpressCFTM platform exclusively licensed from Sutro Biopharma and its proprietary know-how that offers several advantages over conventional cell-based protein expression methods, which the company believes enables it to generate a more broad-spectrum PCV. SutroVax believes it can add more antigenic strains without compromising the overall immune response. In particular, SutroVax's ability to specify the attachment point of antigens, including polysaccharides, on protein carriers represents a significant improvement over the random conjugation that occurs with conventional PCVs. This site-specific conjugation is designed to ensure that T-cell epitopes on the protein carrier are optimally exposed, maximizing the immune response, whereas random conjugation can block these critical immunogenic epitopes, dampening the immune response and causing a phenomenon known as carrier suppression. The company believes this precise control of conjugation chemistry enables it to design broader-spectrum conjugate vaccine candidates using carrier-sparing conjugates that use less protein carrier without sacrificing immunogenicity.