Pharmaceutical company Oravax will reportedly begin a phase 1 clinical trial of its Covid-19 vaccine in pill form. The company hopes to start human clinical trials of the first phase vaccine in June 2021.
There is no guarantee of success from such clinical trials. If successful, it may take a year or more before we can use it.
Quoting Business Insider, the pill vaccine is one of the ‘second generation’ vaccine options designed to be more scalable, easier to administer and simpler to distribute.
Furthermore, the Oravax company is a joint venture of two firms, Israeli-American company Oramed and Indian company Premas Biotech.
“Oral vaccines have the potential to [allow] people to take the vaccine themselves at home,” Oramed CEO, Nadav Kidron, said.
Pill Vaccines: Distributed Easier
People can ship and refrigerate pill vaccines at normal room temperature. Thus, this condition makes it easier to distribute throughout the world.
University of East Anglia medical expert Paul Hunter called on developers to be careful. He assessed that researchers must be able to provide correct studies to prove its benefits.
“But they may also be useful in people who are very needle phobic. And may be easier and quicker to administer,” said Hunter.
On his official website, Oramed stated that his pill vaccine is a triple antigen virus like particle (VLP) vaccine that targets three structural proteins. Moreover, the vaccine is good for protection in all mutations that arise from the corona virus.
“Oral administration of the vaccine should allow large-scale inoculation and easier distribution of the vaccine without the need for an injection,” the company said.
In experimental animal studies, the Covid-19 vaccine increases systemic immunity through Immunoglobulin G (IgG), the most common antibody in blood and body fluids that protects against viral infections, and Immunoglobulin A (IgA).
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