PhotobyTawat / Shutterstock.com
Israel’s MigVax has received a grant of $4.3 million to help develop its COVID-19 oral subunit vaccine tablet from the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), based in Norway. CEPI has backed new vaccine candidates that may not only be “variant-proof” but potentially protect against other pandemic threats.
Canada’s University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organisation also received a grant from CEPI. MigVax CEO David Zigdon said: “We are gratified that CEPI shares our conviction that a subunit oral vaccine tablet could help the world return to a ‘new normal’ in the ‘day-after-the-pandemic’ reality”.
He added: “Oral boosters such as our MigVax-101 which could protect against emerging COVID-19 variants will help health organisations transition from panic mode to routine, reducing the cost and expanding the reach of their vaccination programmes”.
MigVax is an affiliate of MIGAL Galilee Research Institute. The vaccine is called MigVax-101. Unlike the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines that use messenger RNA, this is an oral subunit vaccine, meaning the vaccine presents the coronavirus antigen to the immune system without introducing pathogen particles.
