Farmscape for December 7, 2021
A protein subunit vaccine developed by the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization is proving to be safe and effective in preventing COVID 19, including the new Delta variant.
A COVID 19 subunit vaccine, developed by the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Saskatoon in partnership with the Vaccine Formulation Institute in Switzerland and Seppic, is undergoing human clinical trials at sites in Canada and in Africa.
Dr. Volker Gerdts, the Director and CEO of VIDO, says the technology used to develop this vaccine has a proven safety record and almost all of the childhood vaccines administered today are protein subunits.
Clip-Dr. Volker Gerdts-Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization:
As you know the first phase, really looks at any side effects and the safety of the vaccine in humans and for that we have used different age groups in humans as well as different doses of our vaccine, which is something the regulator requires, and I am pleased to tell you that our vaccine is very safe.
We have not seen any significant adverse reaction in any of the volunteers who have participated in our studies.
More importantly, we have also seen that the vaccine induces very good immune responses that are comparable to those of other technologies out there and, in fact, we were able to confirm that our vaccine seems to be inducing very good responses to the Delta variant which of course as you know is a big concern to all of us at the moment.
Dr. Gerdts notes protein subunit vaccines offer several advantages over some of the newer technologies.
He says they are much easier to handle and transport, they are more stable and don't require ultra low storage temperatures, they are cheaper to manufacture and most importantly this is the technology that has been used in humans for over 50 years with an excellent safety record.
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Bruce Cochrane.
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