Cells4Life’s sister company, Stabilitech, is developing an oral coronavirus vaccine that could be delivered in the post.
Cells4Life Chairman, Wayne Channon, who is also Chairman of Stabilitech, says the firm is hoping to produce millions of its potential coronavirus vaccines by Christmas this year.
The vaccine is an oral capsule which allows for patients to self-administer without the need of healthcare professionals, therefore reducing exposure of COVID-19 to key workers and the general public.
Stabilitech have stated that the vaccine capsules have the benefits of being inexpensive to produce and are thermally stable, meaning they can be posted directly to the consumer.
What is Stabilitech?
Stabilitech Biopharma Ltd. (“Stabilitech”) is a UK biotechnology company developing next generation vaccines and biopharmaceuticals.
How does the coronavirus vaccine work?
In a recent interview with CNBC news, Wayne Channon states that there is a big difference between how the oral vaccine will be absorbed by the human body’s system compared to a normal injection.
He explains that when an individual catches COVID-19, they catch it through their ‘mucosal immune system’ – the membrane which lines their nose, mouth and throat. The virus is absorbed and eventually travels towards their lungs.
The oral vaccine takes the spike protein from coronavirus and uses that to trigger the immune system to develop antibodies to defend against the fatal virus.
The oral coronavirus vaccine is swallowed and enters the stomach to infect cells in the gut and produce an immunity. The cells within the gut are the same mucosal cells that are found in the nose, mouth and throat. The oral vaccine therefore achieves mucosal immunity.
If this was to be administered by injection, the result is what is called ‘systemic immunity’, which is a blood-borne immunity. The advantage of this oral capsule is that it achieves both mucosal and systemic immunity, providing double immunity to millions of individuals.
Due to the capsule’s unique thermal stability, it allows it to be sent out in the post by Amazon or Alibaba, for example. This means that rapid vaccination of millions of people could be possible at the speed of production of the capsules.
Stabilitech hope to produce this unique oral coronavirus vaccine by December this year. You can watch the full interview here.
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References
CNBC (2020) “UK biotech developing oral COVID-19 vaccine that could be delivered in the mail”, available at:
<https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/04/06/uk-biotech-developing-oral-coronavirus-vaccine.html>
Stabilitech (2020), “OraPro-COVID-19”, available at:
<https://www.stabilitech.com/orapro-covid-19/>
European Pharmaceutical Review (2020), “Novel thermally-stable COVID-19 vaccine capsule developed”, available at:
<https://www.europeanpharmaceuticalreview.com/news/115510/novel-thermally-stable-covid-19-vaccine-capsule-developed/>
