Lancaster University has announced that newly launched ViraCorp subsidiary ViraVac will develop a intranasal COVID-19 vaccine based on technology developed at Lancaster by Muhammad Munir, a lecturer in biomedicine. According to the announcement, “The company is set to announce a number of world-leading scientific partner organizations to take the vaccine through trials to production and distribution and intends to target territories where vaccine distribution has been low, supporting the World Health Organization’s campaign on vaccine equity.”
Munir, who serves as Chief Scientific Officer of the new company, said, “With the emergence of new variants and increasing challenges to equitably vaccinating the world, there is a need to develop novel and improved COVID-19 vaccines. Our next-generation dual-antigen carry vaccine offers solutions to several weakness of currently applied vaccines and I am delighted this partnership between ViraCorp and Lancaster University will bring this novel vaccine to market, which I believe will have significant impact in some of the world’s hardest-to-reach communities.”
ViraCorp CEO Jon Chadwick commented, “As a company uniquely equipped to help tackle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it is a responsibility of ours to ensure that our efforts are both as rapid and as impactful as possible. Our aim is to ensure that vaccines are available for everybody, including countries and remote communities which may not have access to the currently available vaccines, and our work with Lancaster University is helping us to facilitate that goal.”
Lancaster University Vice Chancellor Andy Schofield added, “We are proud to be partnering with ViraCorp to bring to market a stable and affordable COVID-19 vaccine which could be vital for some of the world’s developing regions, where levels of vaccinated citizens are often extremely low. Having a vaccination which could be transported easily and administered through a nasal delivery system may help reduce the heavy infrastructure and training requirements of a vaccination drive and assist in getting the vaccine to some of the world’s most remote communities.”
Read the Lancaster University press release.
