What happened to all of the other vaccine development?
-
There were hundreds in development and still dozens that were being worked on even after the mRNA vaccines were being administered.
Novavax has been close to filing for authorization for what feels like years now, but what about the attenuated virus and the recombinant vaccines that were in development? I still can’t help but wonder if an attenuated virus vaccine would be better against the variants.
Me/rry/Christmas
-
@lufins-dad said in What happened to all of the other vaccine development?:
Novavax has been close to filing
Novavax Inc (NVAX.O) said on Friday it had started working on a version of its COVID-19 vaccine to target the variant detected in South Africa and would have the shot ready for testing and manufacturing in the next few weeks.
The company's COVID-19 shot contains an actual version of the virus' spike protein that cannot cause disease but can trigger the immune system. The vaccine developer said it had started developing a spike protein specifically based on the known genetic sequence of the variant, B.1.1.529.
"The initial work will take a few weeks," a company spokesperson said. Shares of the company closed up nearly 9% on Friday.
Novavax's vaccine received its first emergency use approval earlier this month in Indonesia followed by the Philippines.
The company has said it is on track to file for U.S. approval by the end of the year. It has also filed for approvals with the European Medicines Agency as well as in Canada.
Other vaccine developers, including Germany's BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), have said they are testing the effectiveness of their shots against the new variant, which is named Omicron by the World Health Organisation. read more
Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (INO.O)said it had begun testing its vaccine candidate, INO-4800, to evaluate its effectiveness against the new variant. The company expects the testing to take about two weeks.
Inovio also said it was simultaneously designing a new vaccine candidate that specifically targeted Omicron.
"Best case scenario, INO-4800 ... will be completely resilient against omicron, but if that's not the case then we will have a newly designed vaccine ready to go if need be," said Kate Broderick, senior vice president of Inovio's R&D division.
