Drug delivery
The best shot D
id you think it was over? Just for a moment, maybe – as the vaccination numbers rose, or the mercury; when the lockdowns lifted; as
the masks dropped?
No one could blame you. Most of last year was passed in the hope of a vaccine that might work as well as annual flu jabs, and this one began with the roll-out of two brand new mRNA products topping 90% efficacy, as well as multiple viral vector vaccines that could be shipped around the world without the need for ultra- cold logistics. For many people, the past few months have felt closer to 2019 than 2020. So, while Wall Street Investors cheered when Pfizer and Moderna revealed their phase III trial data, there’s been much less enthusiasm about funding new candidates since then. “The game is over,” investors told Hong Jiang, COO and co-founder of early-stage US biotech Aegis Life in spring, “we don’t want another Covid vaccine deal.”
World Pharmaceutical Frontiers /
www.worldpharmaceuticals.net
Aegis Life and other developers of second- generation Covid vaccines have a very different challenge from those that went before them. The bar for initial efficacy, which was all the world cared about back in 2020, has been set higher than anyone dared to hope, raw materials and manufacturing equipment have been diverted into approved products, and people either want a vaccine that can get them back on planes and in restaurants or they don’t want any vaccine at all – ever. Tellingly, Italian company Takis Biotech’s phase I/II Covid-eVax trial has been put in jeopardy by government policy. According to the country’s ‘green pass’ scheme, only recipients of approved vaccines can enter public venues. Experimental vaccines don’t qualify, so recruitment has proven almost impossible. That’s despite the fact Takis is working on what could well be a major success story for Italy and the
11
The validation of Covid-19 vaccines will go down in history as a turning point during this pandemic, but with highly specifi c storage and transportation requirements, the roll-outs that followed have been anything but straightforward. The arrival of DNA vaccines could help solve some of those issues, while delivering a host of other benefi ts. Tim Gunn speaks to Hong Jiang, COO of Aegis Life, and Luigi Aurisicchio, CEO of Takis Biotech, to fi nd out how their technology could be an improvement on current vaccines.
Billion Photos/
www.shutterstock.com
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