Israeli company begins study into Covid-19 vaccine pill
Oravax says its initial testing has produced positive results
Inoculating against COVID-19 could soon be as easy as drinking a glass of water after an Israeli-American firm announced plans to trial a tablet vaccine.
Oravax said that a successful oral delivery method would vastly reduce distribution costs and possibly allow people to take the vaccine themselves at home.
A clinical study will begin before the end of June this year.
The firm said its proposed product was a virus-like particle triple antigen vaccine that targets three structural proteins — which means it should provide better protection across emerging mutations of the coronavirus.
“An oral COVID-19 vaccine would eliminate several barriers to rapid, widescale distribution, potentially enabling people to take the vaccine themselves at home,” said Nadav Kidron, chief executive of Oravax’s Jerusalem-based parent company Oramed.
“While ease of administration is critical today to accelerate inoculation rates, an oral vaccine could become even more valuable in the case that a COVID-19 vaccine may be recommended annually like the standard flu shot.”
A preclinical study in animals showed the vaccine produced antibodies after a single dose, the firm added.
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