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The Adcovid vaccine candidate is administered once by nasal spray. It is being developed by the American biopharmaceutical company Altimmune. But it will be manufactured by the Basel company Lonza.
Altimmune expects to bring the vaccine to market in 2021, both companies announced Tuesday. A phase 1 clinical study will be launched in the last quarter of 2020, the results of which should be available in the first quarter of 2021. Preclinical studies have been conducted so far.
The vaccine is said to protect for a year or more
Given previous clinical experience with its vaccination platform, Altimmune hopes that Adcovid will be able to protect people from Covid-19 for a year or more. Furthermore, Adcovid should be able to be transported without ensuring a cold chain.
Financial details of the contract were not released in the communication. Altimmune is a research company listed on the US Nasdaq technology market that develops intranasal vaccines, immunomodulatory therapies and liver disease treatments. Altimmune has a vaccine against the influenza virus in the works.
About 200 vaccine candidates
Lonza is already a vaccine manufacturing partner for Moderna, which is considered one of the leaders in the race for a coronavirus vaccine. Efforts around the world to develop a coronavirus vaccine are in full swing. The World Health Organization currently has more than 150 candidates in the preclinical phase and almost 50 in the clinical phase.
The German company Biontech and the US company Pfizer were the first Western manufacturers to publish promising results from a phase III study, crucial for their approval. Consequently, its vaccine offers more than 90 percent protection against Covid-19 disease. The two companies are now expected to apply for approval from the US FDA starting next week.
There are different approaches to vaccine development. According to the company, the advantage of the Altimmune vaccine lies in its unique and simple administration, its easy transport, but also in the broad immune response. The vaccine activates systemic immunity by neutralizing antibodies and T-cell reactions, as well as local immunity, the so-called mucosal immunity, he said.
