Premas Biotech, Oramed announce single-dose oral COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Premas Biotech announced the development of an oral COVID-19 vaccine that has shown efficacy after a single dose, in conjunction with Oramed Pharmaceuticals.

Accelerating the vaccine’s path to market, Premas, Oramed and other shareholders, have formed Oravax Medical which has received exclusive licenses from Oramed and Premas to develop oral COVID-19 vaccines.

A statement from the company informed, “After a single dose of the Oravax COVID-19 capsule, efficacy was evident through antibody production in a pilot animal study. Oravax’s vaccine promoted both systemic immunity through Immunoglobulin G (IgG), the most common antibody in blood and bodily fluids that protects against viral infections and Immunoglobulin A (IgA) which protects the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts against infection.”

It added, “Premas’ protein-based VLP (virus like particle) vaccine candidate creates triple protection against the SARS CoV-2 virus Spike, Membrane, and Envelope targets. The vaccine candidate is also safe, efficacious and well-tolerated at normal to high doses, and generated high titres of neutralising antibodies. The VLP is manufactured using Premas’ proprietary D-Crypt platform, which is highly scalable and can be manufactured on large scales.”

Dr Prabuddha Kundu, Co-Founder and MD, Premas Biotech commented, “An oral COVID-19 vaccine that harnesses and combines the true potential of the two platforms, Premas’ D-Crypt™ technology platform with Oramed’s world-leading oral protein delivery platform POD is an excellent example of true collaboration and can rapidly advance into late-stage clinical trials. Oramed’s experience and success in conducting Phase 2 and 3 oral protein trials positions our program very favourably in the race to find an effective oral COVID-19 vaccine that can be administered by anyone anywhere. We are looking forward to sharing clinical data soon.”

“We are very excited about our oral vaccine candidate’s potential to help end the pandemic. An oral COVID-19 vaccine would eliminate several barriers to rapid, widescale distribution, enabling people to take the vaccine themselves at home. While ease of administration is critical today to accelerate inoculation rates, an oral vaccine could become even more valuable in the likely case that a COVID-19 vaccine may be required annually or biannually like the standard flu shot,” said Nadav Kidron, CEO of Oramed.