Developed for 2 years
The US Army Laboratory is working, according to a report from the news platform one defense On the vaccine for about two years. In early 2020, it received the first DNA sequences of the Covid-19 pathogens. The early goal was to develop a vaccine not only against the existing strain, but against all potential variants.
The Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle Covid-19 vaccine, SpFN for short, was first tested in animal trials in early 2021. According to the research institute, those tests were successful. Kayvon Modjarrad, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Walter Reed, said in an exclusive interview with Kayvon Modjarrad that the first phase of human studies, in which the vaccine has already been tested against Omikron and other variants, concluded again with positive results this month. one defense.
different structure
Unlike current vaccines, SpFN is based on a football-shaped protein containing 24 vaccine fields, allowing scientists to flip multiple coronavirus strains on different sides of the protein. The immune system faces several variables at the same time.
“It’s very exciting for me and the entire team, including the entire army, to get to this point,” Modjarrad said. Modgarad said the human studies took longer than expected, because the vaccine had to be tested on participants who were not vaccinated or cured. High vaccination rates and rapid spread of delta and omicron variants made this difficult.
“With Omikron there is no way to escape from this virus. You will not be able to avoid it. So I think very soon the whole world will be vaccinated or infected,” Modjarrad said.
Phase 2 and Phase 3 are pending
The next step is to check how well the novel coronavirus vaccine works in previously vaccinated or sick people. “We need to evaluate this in the real world and try to understand how the vaccine works in a much larger number of people who were initially vaccinated with something else or who were already sick,” Modjarad said, adding that the new vaccine still needed to go through phases 2 and 3 studies. .
Almost all of the institute’s 2,500 employees have been involved in developing the vaccine for about two years. “We made the decision to work in the long-term rather than focus solely on the original occurrence of SARS and instead understand that viruses change. Variants will emerge, future viruses that may emerge in relation to new species. Our platform and approach will enable people to be prepared for them.”