Researchers at the University of Sydney have identified a variant proof vaccine they hope to have in human trials early next year.Israel’s MigVax is working on a multivariant vaccine that would come in a freeze-dried tablet which dissolves in the mouth.In the US, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research has a vaccine against multiple coronaviruses in a small Phase 1 human clinical trial.Monkeys given the vaccine were protected against the original Wuhan variant of Covid as well as the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants, and the original Sars virus from 2003.Another team of researchers at Oxford and Caltech Universities have tested a one-shot vaccine that contains eight coronavirus variants. Mice given the jab generated antibodies that could neutralise coronaviruses not even included in the vaccine.These new types of jabs are vital because the virus behind Covid is mutating so fast that even before medical companies develop new vaccines to deal with the latest variant the virus has moved on.Earlier this year, Moderna and Pfizer rapidly produced updated vaccines to deal with the original Omicron variant but before they had even concluded trials, the virus had mutated and two new variants BA.5 and BA.5 had taken off.Recently a new variant BA.2.75 has begun spreading in India.“Feasibly we can’t update the vaccines in time to provide really robust protective immunity against all of them in time,” said University Sydney virologist Dr Megan Steain who is working on a super vaccine.“The idea is to generate or create a vaccine that generates immunity, which will hopefully be effective against any variants that could potentially emerge in the future so that we’re not always chasing our tails.”NED-6477-Omicron-family-treeHer team is part of a consortium with a Swiss protein production company ExcellGene and Indian vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech, which was awarded $19.3 million by Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).They are mixing together a range of different Covid mutations in vaccines in a bid to find one that will drive the broadest possible immunity.The aim is to find a product that targets parts of the virus that were unlikely to change when it mutated, she said.“We’ve gone into animals. We’ve got further testing to do to narrow down the best candidate, but we are proceeding with at least one of our candidates through a phase one trial into humans in the first few months of next year,” she said.Former Health Department chief Jane Halton, who chairs CEPI, said the superjabs were under early stages of development but would be vital.“We need to get to the second generation of vaccines, to ones that provide boarder protection,” she said.Most Australians are now lining up for their fourth Covid jab in 12 months. It is hoped a variant-proof vaccine would only need to be given once every couple of years.“I think one shot for your lifetime is probably a bit ambitious, given what we’ve seen so far, in terms of waning immunity over time. But I would hope that you wouldn’t need it quite as regularly as every year like you do with influenza vaccine maybe every couple of years,” Dr Steain said.Dr Rob Grenfell, who previously worked at the CSIRO which tested early Covid vaccines, said it would be challenging to produce a pan Covid vaccine and previous attempts to do this for the flu had failed.“Believe me, there’s been a lot of work done on it and it’s been it’s been fraught with failure. But that certainly doesn’t mean we give up on it with regards to coronavirus,” he said.“Coronavirus at the moment is going through this radical phase of adjusting to the new house that is humans. And we still hold out that it will stabilise,” he said.If the virus begins to stabilise that will make it easier to produce a multivariant vaccine that might only be required once every five years, he said.suetips
Powered by WPeMatico
