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An Israeli-developed oral coronavirus vaccine will soon commence clinical trials in Israel, reportedly making Israel the first country in the world to test an oral Covid-19 vaccine. The developers, Oramed Pharmaceuticals, believe that the single-dose pill could help bring vaccines to countries that do not have the necessary infrastructure to store vaccines.
CEO of Oramed, Nadav Kidron, said that the “oral vaccine, which doesn’t rely on a deep freeze supply chain, unlike other coronavirus vaccines, could mean all the difference between a country being able to emerge from the pandemic or not”.
Oramed has been given approval from Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center to begin a clinical trial on 24 unvaccinated volunteers. Scientists will monitor whether the oral vaccine generates antibodies, and if so, to what level.
Kidron believes that the vaccine is likely to be more resistant to current and potential new Covid-19 variants, as it targets proteins that are not prone to mutation. “Our vaccine is a particularly strong candidate against the evolving Covid-19 virus due to its unique targeting of three proteins rather than one”, he said.
