Introducing Plant-Based COVID-19 Vaccine: 70% Effective Against Variants

The COVID-19 vaccine was developed that was made from protein in plants by the researchers at Canadian biotechnology company Medicago and is called "Covifenz."

The vaccine developed by researchers at Canadian biotechnology company Medicago contains coronavirus-like particles (CoVLP) produced in plants, which are combined with an adjuvant (ASO3) that helps vaccines work better.

A new plant-based COVID-19 vaccine was found to be highly effective in preventing disease caused by five different viral strains or variants in a human trial conducted by researchers. The study was published in the journal New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Covifenz: The Plant-Based Vaccine

The vaccine, called Covifenz, is nearly 70% effective against symptomatic disease caused by five variants, according to results from the human clinical trial of all vaccines. The vaccine has been developed by researchers at Canadian biotech company Medicago, which contains plant-produced coronavirus-like particles (CoVLPs) that are combined with an adjuvant (ASO3) that helps vaccines work better.

‘The vaccine, called Covifenz, contains plant-produced coronavirus-like particles and is made from proteins, grown in plants.’

The vaccine contains plant-produced CoVLPs and the researchers said that the vaccine’s efficacy was 78.8% and 74% against moderate-to-severe disease and among those who were seronegative at baseline, respectively, in a statistical analysis.

The study authors noted that “The CoVLP+AS03 vaccine was effective in preventing COVID-19 caused by a spectrum of variants, with efficacy ranging from 69.5 percent against symptomatic infection to 78.8 percent against moderate-to-severe disease.”

The phase 3 trial of the vaccine was conducted at 85 centers involving 24,141 adults who were randomly chosen to receive either two intramuscular injections of the CoVLP+AS03 vaccine or two doses of placebo 21 days apart. The researchers confirmed that those patients have COVID-19 using polymerase chain reaction testing in 165 participants. It shows that the vaccine’s efficacy was 69.5% against any symptomatic COVID-19 that was caused by variants too.

In the vaccine group, as per the researchers analysis, there were no severe cases of COVID-19 or any variants. They said that the median viral load for breakthrough cases was more than 100 times lower in the vaccine group than in the placebo group.

According to the researchers, solicited adverse events were mainly mild or moderate and transient, occurring more frequently in the vaccine group than in the placebo group. Local adverse events occurred in 92.3% and 45.5% in the vaccine group and placebo group, respectively, and systemic adverse events occurred in 87.3% and 65.0%, respectively.

“The potential effect of this plant-based technology in the current pandemic will be greatly influenced by the evolution of the pandemic itself,” the authors noted.

“However, the availability and further development of this platform could have important implications for pandemic readiness,” they added. However, the study researchers noted that the Covifenz vaccine efficacy among adults who were 65 years or older could not be determined because of the limited enrollment of participants in this age group.

Covifenz is the world’s first plant-based COVID-19 inoculation, and is made from proteins, grown in plants, which resembles the virus that causes COVID-19 and its variants in the human immune system. The vaccine also uses GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s pandemic adjuvant, a substance that stimulates the immune system’s response. It was developed jointly by Medicago, owned by Mitsubishi Chemical and Philip Morris, and Glaxo. The Canadian government provided $173 million in funding for its development and is so far the only country that has authorized it for use.

However, previous evidence, as per the researchers, suggests that the CoVLP+AS03 vaccine induced similar immune responses in both younger and older adults. Several study authors disclosed financial ties to Medicago, which funded the study and is the manufacturer of the CoVLP+AS03 vaccine.

Source-Medindia