11th Jan 2021 11:45
(Alliance News) - Open Orphan PLC on Monday said it has dosed the first volunteer in its trial of Codagenix Inc's needle free Covid-19 vaccine.
Open Orphan, which provides vaccine and antiviral testing using human challenge clinical trials, said the first volunteer had been dosed with COVI-VAC, a needle free intranasal Covid-19 vaccine, as part of a phase 1 clinical trial.
The trial is being carried out at hVIVO's UK facility, hVIVO being part of Open Orphan. COVI-VAC is a single-dose, intranasal, live attenuated vaccine against the virus that causes Covid-19, known as SARS-CoV-2.
The vaccine differs from currently available vaccines, like the AstraZeneca PLC-Oxford vaccine and Pfizer Inc-BioNTech SE vaccine, in a number of ways.
Fore example, both the Astra and Pfizer vaccines require two doses and are injected using a syringe, while this vaccine is a single dose and is intranasal, meaning it is administered through the nose.
Additionally, the Codagenix vaccine uses a live attenuated virus, meaning the entire virus is contained in the vaccine in a weakened form. The Pfizer and Astra vaccines contain mRNA, the genetic instructions for making the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein found on the virus's surface and not the whole virus.
Also unlike the Pfizer vaccine, it foes not need ultra-low temperature freezers for storage.
The phase 1 study will evaluate the vaccines ability to cause an immune response, as well as its safety and tolerability in 48 healthy young adult volunteers.
Open Orphan Executive Chair Cathal Friel said: "This vaccine is one of the first of the next generation Covid-19 vaccines, it is a single dose, needle free, intranasal, live attenuated Covid-19 virus vaccine. Thus, in our opinion, because it is a live attenuated virus vaccine, COVI-VAC has the potential to give much longer-lasting cellular immunity against Covid-19 than many of the first-generation vaccines."
Shares in Open Orphan were down 1.9% at 25.50 pence in London on Monday morning.
By Anna Farley; [email protected]
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