Pfizer COFID vaccine shows ‘robust’ results in early trial

(HealthDay) – A vaccine based on state-of-the-art RNA gene technology showed promising potential against the new coronavirus in an early trial, scientists reported.

The vaccine candidate – now just named BNT162b1 – “gained a robust immune response in participants, which increased with dose level and with a second dose,” according to a news release from the magazine Nature, who published the trial data on 12 August.

The early phase 1/2 trial was led by Drs. Judith Absalon, of drug giant Pfizer Inc. According to her team, BNT162b1 is based on a bit of genetic code, known as messenger RNA, which helps in triggering the body’s immune response when it encounters the new coronavirus.

RNA-focused vaccine development strategies are “generally considered safe and have facilitated the rapid development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2,” the journal noted.

The new trial involved 45 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 55. Half were randomly selected to receive the vaccine at a low, medium or high dose, while the other half received a “dummy” placebo shot.

The result: “The vaccine elicited a robust immune response in participants,” and the higher the dose, the stronger the response, the authors reported. A second “booster” shot also receives the response from the immune system.

In fact, in participants who received the vaccine, “levels of [coronavirus-] neutralizing antibodies were 1.9 to 4.6 times higher than those in patients recovering from SARS-CoV-2, “according to the release. However, Absalon group insists that phase 3 studies – where the vaccine has been tested in many larger population – necessary to confirm the safety, potency and duration of each protective effect.

According to the journal, the shot was “generally well tolerated”, although some recipients were experiencing some transient side effects, such as injection site pain, fatigue, headache, fever and sleep problems. Those tended to recover within a week of vaccination, the researchers said.

Dr. Amesh Adalja is an expert in infectious diseases and a senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore. Reading about the new report, he said, “The study provides more evidence for mRNA candidate COVID vaccines inducing neutralizing antibodies after two doses.”

Adalja notes that there are “multiple” COVID-19 vaccine candidates using RNA technology, and this suggests that they may elicit a potential immune response in humans.

“What remains to be seen is what these antibodies translate into when a vaccinated individual is exposed to the wild virus,” Adalja said. “Until we see phase 3 clinical data, it is still an extrapolation to understand how effective these vaccines will be in the real world.”

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