Meissa Vaccines has provided updates on two intranasal live attenuated vaccines (LAVs) based on its “codon deoptimized RSV vaccine platform with the goal of creating safe, potent, stable, and cost-effective intranasal vaccines.” The company said that it held a pre-IND meeting with the FDA regarding its MV-014-210 for prevention of SARS-CoV-2 and that it intends to initiate clinical trials early next year. The announcement also presented interim results from a Phase 1 study of its MV-012-968 for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
According to Meissa, the dose-ranging Phase 1 trial of MV-012-968 in healthy adults has demonstrated that the vaccine is capable of producing a strong immune response and that it was well tolerated. The MV-014-210 vaccine for COVID-19 is based on MV-012-968 but with the RSV glycoproteins of that vaccine replaced with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Both vaccines are adjuvant-free, and the company says that they rely on “a straightforward, economical, and scalable manufacturing process capable of supplying global demands.”
Meissa CEO Martin Moore said, “The COVID-19 vaccine pipeline is dominated by non-replicating vaccines, while live attenuated vaccines are known to induce long-lasting immunity after a single adjuvant-free dose, presenting an economical and effective solution to this global pandemic. A single dose of MV-014-210 may be sufficient to generate immunity against SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, building our COVID-19 vaccine candidate on our RSV vaccine platform provides safety advantages compared to a live attenuated coronavirus approach.”
Moore added, “The promising clinical data from our RSV vaccine candidate showing that it generated an immune response and has been safe and well-tolerated in healthy individuals further supports the application of Meissa’s technology to a COVID-19 vaccine candidate as well as continued development of MV-012-968 for RSV.”
Read the Meissa Vaccines press release.
