The Canadian biotech firm Medicago (CVE:MDG) is hooking up GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) on a study involving 30,000 participants.
The Quebec City-based Medicago had recently announced promising data concerning its plant-based vaccine candidate.
Medicago’s vaccine is unique in that it uses virus-like particles that resemble the structure of the novel coronavirus but contain no genetic material from the virus.
The phase 2/3 trial will investigate the safety and immune response of a combination of two doses of Medicago’s vaccine with GSK’s adjuvant. The two doses will be spaced 21 days apart.
Medicago had recently announced that the plant-derived vaccine showed promising results in a Phase 1 study, which involved two doses of the vaccine candidate.
The partially blinded study involved 180 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 55.
Medicago’s vaccine candidate trails those such as Moderna and Pfizer, whose vaccine candidates promise to have an efficacy rate approaching 95% based on interim analyses of Phase 3 trials. Medicago’s product does have a potential advantage over the latter in terms of storage requirements. While Pfizer’s vaccine candidate must be held at –70° C, Medicago expects its vaccine to be stable at 2° to 8°C. Similarly, Moderna’s vaccine can be stored between 2° to 8°C for 30 days and for as long as six months when held at –20° C.
Filed Under: clinical trials, Drug Discovery, Infectious Disease
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