A Swiss-German consortium led by Volker Thiel of the Institute of Virology and Immunology and the University of Bern has partnered with Swiss startup RocketVax to develop two live attenuated intranasal vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2 for planned Phase 1 trials. The consortium, which also includes researchers from the University of Geneva, the Freie Universität Berlin, and the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, originates from the Swiss National Science Foundation’s NRP 78 COVID-19 national research project.
RocketVax said, “The goal is to develop a next-generation vaccine against Covid-19 that will provide better protection against viral mutants and elicit a longer-term immune response.”
According to the NRP 78 announcement, “The two new vaccine candidates differ from the first-generation vaccines in several respects: they also become active in new viral variants because they contain all viral proteins and not just the spike protein. They therefore provide a broader immune response resulting from the activation of T cells against all viral proteins. The future vaccine will be made available as a nasal spray, which not only simplifies administration but also activates the important immune response on the mucous membranes.”
Read the Swiss National Science Foundation press release.
Read the RocketVax press release.
