Rokote Laboratories, a spin out from the University of Helsinki and the University of Eastern Finland, has raised €9 million for development of an intranasal vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the universities have announced. The funding, which includes €3.5 million from the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Ferring Ventures SA, and the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, in addition to a €5.5 million loan from Business Finland, will cover Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials of the FINCoVac vaccine candidate.
FINCoVac is an adenovirus-carrier vaccine that uses gene transfer technology developed by Seppo Ylä-Herttuala of the University of Eastern Finland and research by Kalle Saksela of the University of Helsinki and Kari Alitalo of the Wihuri Research Institute.
Ylä-Herttuala explained, “The vaccine uses a safe adenovirus carrier that contains a cloned DNA strand of the SARS-Cov-2 virus’s S protein. This can be used to program nasopharyngeal cells to produce the surface protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which, in turn, produces a response to the vaccine. There are no other parts of the virus in the vaccine.”
Saksela added, “With the vaccine we are developing now, we seek to tackle the challenge posed by new virus mutations. In the future, the vaccine can serve as an easy-to-administer booster for those who have already received a traditional vaccine.”
Read the University of Eastern Finland press release.
