JOHANNESBURG – Oravax Medical Inc, a subsidiary of Oramed, a US/Israeli pharmaceutical company, has begun the first phase of its oral Covid-19 vaccine clinical trial in South Africa.
With considerable vaccine reluctance, South Africa has been struggling with its efforts to attain herd immunity through vaccines.
A powerful anti-vaccination lobby exists, which includes various political groups.
Oramed Chief Executive Officer Na.dav Kidron said in a statement, “We expect to rapidly complete this study and hope to advance into pivotal trials for emergency use approval in countries where our oral Virus-Like Particles (VLP) \s vaccine would have the greatest impact,”
“South Africa is an excellent location for the Phase 1 study because it is currently experiencing a surge in Covid cases and is having difficulty obtaining vaccines.”
There has been an increase in Covid cases, and immunizations have been hard to come by.
“It is our firm belief that an oral vaccine which eliminates syringes and eases distribution and administration, can significantly help increase vaccination rates \s for South Africa and similar countries,” Kidron added.
Participants in the open-label trial have never received a Covid-19 vaccine or caught the virus. At the start of the experiment, participants will get one dose of the oral vaccination, followed by a second dose three weeks later.
. The trial’s endpoints will include safety and tolerability, as well as efficacy, which will be determined by detecting an immunogenic response.
The trial phase would be brief, according to sin E al Kidron, in order to demonstrate as rapidly as possible that the oral vaccine performs well in humans before obtaining phase two authorization.
Oravax claims that their oral vaccination targets three SARS COV-2 viral surface proteins, including proteins that are less likely to be mutated, making it possibly more effective against existing and future Covid-19 virus strains.
“Oravax’s VLP vaccine technology is highly scalable for manufacturing and is easily transferable for logistical wide scale distribution as there is no need for \ssubfreezing storage,” the company claimed.
Oravax Medical Inc. was founded earlier this year by Oramed Pharmaceuticals and other shareholders with the goal of developing and commercializing an oral Covid-19 vaccine.
Oramed, a company that specializes in oral drug delivery, is now conducting clinical studies for the first commercial oral insulin capsule for the treatment of diabetes.
