The WHO previously called plant-based vaccines, made by producing antigens in genetically modified plants that can then be extracted and purified by conventional methods, a 'new and exciting possibility'.
ADELA SULIMAN: Pharmaceutical companies Medicago and GlaxoSmithKline announced on Tuesday “positive efficacy and safety results” from a global trial using what they say is the world’s first plant-based coronavirus vaccine.
The late-stage trial, which studied 24,000 adults across six countries, found that the overall efficacy rate of the vaccine candidate was 71 percent, rising to 75.3 percent against “COVID-19 of any severity for the globally dominant Delta variant.” However, the trial did not include the newly identified omicron variant.
The global Phase 3 placebo-controlled efficacy study used Canada-based Medicago’s plant-based vaccine in combination with British drugmaker GSK’s pandemic adjuvant, an ingredient that works to boost the immune response and efficacy of others’ vaccines.
It does not yet have a brand name, the companies said, but is currently referred to as “CoVLP”… Medicago said its vaccination regimen calls for two doses given intramuscularly 21 days apart and for the vaccine to be stored at 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit (2 to 8 degrees Celsius)…
Plant-based vegan and vegetarian alternatives in food and materials markets have become increasingly popular globally, as consumers choose them for environmental or religious reasons, but Brian Ward, medical officer at Medicago, told The Washington Post that it would not be appropriate to categorize the vaccine candidate as such: “The plants that are used simply act as bioreactors to produce the antigen.”
The companies said they hoped the vaccine would diversify the current pool of shots available and said the trial had shown that it was “well-tolerated, with no related serious adverse events reported in the vaccine group”…
The vaccine candidate has not been approved by any regulatory authority. However, Medicago said it would “imminently” file its final regulatory submission to Health Canada. It also said it had initiated the regulatory filing process with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, while preliminary discussions were also underway with the World Health Organization.
The WHO previously called plant-based vaccines, made by producing antigens in genetically modified plants that can then be extracted and purified by conventional methods, a “new and exciting possibility”. SOURCE…
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