A new COVID-19 vaccine that uses COVID’s spike protein itself to send genetic instructions to “enhance” the body’s immune system against COVID may soon be on the market.
According to NPR, this vaccine differs from the ones already on the market in that “it contains the spike protein itself — no need to make it, it's already made — along with an adjuvant that enhances the immune system's response, to make the vaccine even more protective.”
The design model Novavax is using is already operational in hepatitis B and pertussis vaccine technology; Novavax has been testing it for COVID in tens of thousands of volunteers in the U.S. and Mexico. Novavax president for research and development, Dr. Gregory Glenn, said the company hopes for authorization of the vaccine in the third quarter of 2021.
Other COVID vaccines are in the works too, including one from a Canadian biotech that uses tobacco plant cells that are modified to contain the genetic instructions to make the COVID viral protein.
SOURCE: NPR June 6, 2021