CEPI: – Pollen is under development

The Israeli company MigVax Ltd is developing pollen. The company recently got support from CEPI, the Vaccine Development Alliance, which is headquartered in Norway.

The MigVax approach is completely new to us, and we haven’t seen it before, but the company believes it has evidence that it’s possible to make a tablet that contains much of what is given with protein vaccines that are put into the arm, says Stig Tollefsen, a technology leader New in CEPI.

If all goes according to plan, the pill will work through the active ingredients in the vaccine being absorbed into the mucous membranes and eliciting an immune response.

– It is attractive, because through the mucous membranes the virus enters the body. This will then trigger a massive immune system, and the adaptive immune system will initiate a protective response.

– much easier

The company hopes that the vaccine in pill form will work as a “booster dose” for the coronavirus vaccines on the market today, as well as a stand-alone vaccine, Tolfsen explains.

– If the tablet works as we hope, distribution and logistics will be much easier. Next, a box of pills will be sent in place of vaccines, needles, and syringes, Tolfsen says.

The Israeli company’s support is part of CEPI’s plan to invest $200 million in developing vaccines with broad protection against SARS-CoV-2 – commonly known as coronavirus, and beta-coronavirus – such as SARS and MERS.

CEPI’s support presupposes that a potential hack will benefit the global community. Tollefsen explains that all vaccines developed with CEPI support have equitable access requirements, and must be made available through the Covax Vaccine International Collaboration.

It can be of great importance

The Israeli company will initially test whether the pill vaccine works similarly to the vaccines currently in use.

– But in the long run, they have the potential to create a broad protective variant. The reason we chose to invest in this is because this could be important for other ailments, if this turns out to be working, Tolfsen explains, adding that it’s a long-term project with a 12-18 month framework.

Many fully vaccinated people become infected

The pill must first undergo preclinical studies before it can be tested in humans.

Signing with MigVax is one of two agreements that are now in the box in the CEPI plan. The second prize went to the Canadian University of Saskatchewan. Their plan is to develop a vaccine that works on a wide range of coronaviruses.

“There are some areas of the virus where mutations occur more often, and it will create a molecule that reflects the mutations we already know, as well as possibly future mutations in a way that protects the immune response on a larger scale than we see today,” Tolfsen says.

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wide protection

Today, the delta variant is prevalent in large parts of the world. However, the coronavirus is changing all the time, and it may be necessary to modify vaccines to achieve better protection against both serious diseases and future infections, if the virus mutates into a more vaccine-resistant variant.

The hope is that a broad-spectrum vaccine, the so-called safe variant vaccine, will protect against all coronaviruses — also against beta coronaviruses, such as the more deadly variants SARS and MERS.

– Disaster

In addition, it is desirable that corona vaccines provide long-term protection.

– But I think we are still in the learning stage to understand how we can protect ourselves in the best possible way and what provides the best protection. Whether it will be an annual dose, or whether we will be able to come up with other candidates that offer long-term protection, no one knows yet. But there’s a lot more in development to know what it takes, so there’s no reason to give up hope, Tolfsen says.

The two CEPI agreements are the first in a series From many signaturesThe Vaccine Development Alliance is currently evaluating and selecting the most promising candidates. The money that will be distributed will be allocated to candidates working to develop large-scale and possibly long-term coronavirus vaccines as well, according to CEPI.