THDNewsDesk, Pune: Recently, The Serum Institute of India has commenced the production of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Codagenix Inc, the US biotech firm stated that it had developed the vaccine. CDX-005, the coronavirus vaccine candidate has finished pre-clinical animal examinations. The company endeavours to begin phase I clinical test of its COVID-19 vaccine in the United Kingdom by the year-end.
Earlier, Codagenix collaborated with the Serum Institute of India. The Serum Institute of India is the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world. It is due to the large number of doses produced by the Institute to develop CDX-005. J. Robert Coleman, PhD. CEO of Codagenix said: “Today marks an important step in our efforts to advance the development of CDX-005.”
The biotech company declared that the pre-clinical research had exhibited propitious results. The company stated that “Pre-clinical testing of a single, intranasal dose of CDX-005 in animals has yielded encouraging safety and efficacy signals.” Coleman added, “With Serum Institute’s financial and technical support, we expect to rapidly propel the vaccine into the clinic before the end of 2020.”
Mechanism of Codagenix’s COVID-19 vaccine:
“CDX-005 was engineered using our proprietary codon deoptimization software platform, which allowed us to recode the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus by inserting hundreds of mutations. These mutations result in a live-attenuated vaccine that is non-pathogenic yet has the potential to stimulate a robust T cell and antibody immune response that mimics that of the wild-type virus,” stated Coleman.
Coleman described Codagenix’s COVID-19 vaccine works uniquely than the various vaccine candidates. He said, “Our live-attenuated vaccine approach is in sharp contrast to many of the more common COVID-19 immunization strategies currently undergoing human testing, such as mRNA or virus-like-particle candidates, which only target the spike protein or the adenovirus vectored approaches that could cause off-target effects.”
He further added, “Moreover, CDX-005 is delivered intranasally rather than via an injection, which allows for more efficient, patient-friendly administration.”
The US-based firm stated that the Serum Institute obtained significant regulatory permission from the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) of India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for producing Codagenix’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Glenn Rockman, the managing partner at Adjuvant Capital, said: “The software-driven virus recoding approach used by Codagenix holds the potential to not only develop optimized, more affordable versions of existing vaccines but also rapidly respond to future outbreaks.”
Codagenix is a clinical-stage synthetic biology corporation. It applies software to rearrange the genomes of viruses, building live-attenuated vaccines or viruses to inhibit viral infections or cure solid tumours. Adjuvant Capital and TopSpin Partners support Codagenix’s vaccine programmes.
The Serum Institute will commence producing large-scale secure and potent studies. The pharma major said that it would manage to, suffice global vaccine supply demands. With the ongoing development of vaccines for COVID-19, one can only hope for the trials to be successful. The only hope lies within the pharmaceutical institutes to fight the arduous battle with the pandemic.
