With COVID-19 widely expected to become an endemic illness like the flu, news of the development of novel oral COVID-19 vaccines in tablet form by various life science companies is heartening news,
One of these "tablet vaccines" is being developed by the Israeli-American company Oramed Pharmaceuticals using its novel Protein Oral Delivery (POD) technology and the India company Premas Biotech Pvt. Ltd that will produce the pill using novel vaccine technology.
Oramed and Premas Biotech have formed a joint venture firm named Oravax Medical Inc. to develop the novel oral COVID-19 vaccine. The partners said their tablet vaccine successfully produced antibodies in a preclinical study after a single dose.
In a pilot animal study, this oral COVID-19 vaccine promoted both systemic immunity through Immunoglobulin G (IgG), the most common antibody in blood and bodily fluids that protects against viral infections, and Immunoglobulin A (IgA).
Oramed and Premas Biotech said the tablet might enter a Phase I clinical trial in humans this June. Oravax said its vaccine candidate benefits from it being a "virus like particle" (VLP) triple antigen vaccine targeting three structural proteins.
This feature should make it a better candidate for protection against COVID-19 across emerging mutations of the coronavirus. The oral delivery of the vaccine should allow for wide scale inoculation and easier distribution since no injections are required.
"An oral COVID-19 vaccine would eliminate several barriers to rapid, wide scale distribution, potentially enabling people to take the vaccine themselves at home, said Oramed CEO Nadav Kidron.
"While ease of administration is critical today to accelerate inoculation rates, an oral vaccine could become even more valuable in the case that a COVID-19 vaccine may be recommended annually like the standard flu shot."
Oramed calls itself a platform technology pioneer in the field of oral delivery solutions for drugs currently delivered via injection.
Scientists said there is no guarantee the tablet vaccine will become a success. Even if it works, it might take a year or more before the tablet vaccine is authorized for use by the general public.
Oral vaccines are an option being assessed for "second-generation" vaccines. These types of vaccines are designed to be more scalable, easier to administer and simpler to distribute.
A number of drug firms also plan to develop their own tablet vaccines. Oxford University, which developed the widely used vaccine along with AstraZeneca, is assessing the possibility of developing tablets and nasal-spray oral vaccines.
California-based life sciences company ImmunityBio is running Phase I clinical trials of an oral version of its COVID-19 vaccine codenamed hAd5. This tablet vaccine, however, will be used more as a booster dose to hAd5 rather than a vaccine on its own.
