COVID-19 vaccine: Premas Biotech initiates mice studies

The company said it had successfully completed the manufacturing process for the VLP (virus like particle) vaccine candidate, which includes three surface antigens from SARS-CoV-2.

Viswanath Pilla

July 09, 2020 / 12:45 PM IST

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Premas Biotech, the Gurgaon-based Biotech company which developed the triple antigen virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine candidate for SARS CoV-2 virus, said it had progressed into animal trials.

"The four-week placebo-controlled, blinded and randomised tests to be conducted in mice, will seek to evaluate safety in the rodent model and examine immune response by dose titration," the company said in a press release.

Premas Biotech said it planned to administer the test across different dose amounts, including human doses.

The data and findings of this study are expected in about six weeks, the company said.

The company said it had successfully completed the manufacturing process for the VLP (virus like particle) vaccine candidate, which included three surface antigens from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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In Premas cases its vaccine contains protein subunits of viruses like Spike (S), Envelope (E), and Membrane (M). The protein sub-units or antigens will trigger immune response like the conventional vaccine. US biotech Novavax is developing a similar antigen based vaccine that uses Spike protein. The vaccine candidate is in human trials.

At the moment, Premas is the only one from India to adopt a triple-antigen approach that is designed to produce an enhanced immune response.

“We are excited that we have been able to manufacture and characterise the VLP containing three main proteins from SARS-CoV-2 virus," said Prabuddha Kundu, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Premas Biotech.

"We are now moving ahead for animal trials using mice to analyse the safety and immunogenicity of the candidate. We believe it will be the first case of a triple-antigen VLP administered to an animal for SARS CoV-2," Kundu said.

Premas Biotech, which is working on the development of the COVID-19 vaccine through the proof of concept approach in collaboration with its US partner Akers Biosciences, has already established a manufacturing protocol and initiated large-scale production studies for the vaccine candidate.

There were around 30 COVID-19 vaccine projects in various stages of development, including of those of companies such as Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech, Zydus Cadila, Biological E, Indian Immunologicals, Hester Biosciences, among others. Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila vaccines were approved for conducting human trials so far.

Viswanath Pilla is a business journalist with 14 years of reporting experience. Based in Mumbai, Pilla covers pharma, healthcare and infrastructure sectors for Moneycontrol.

Tags: #Business #Companies #coronavirus #Health

first published: Jul 9, 2020 12:45 pm

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