Advancing Past Early Trials – Plus Shooting for Lifelong Immunity (Next Generation Covid Vax Update 12)

A massive funding boost from Project NextGen enables 3 phase 2b trials of next generation Covid vaccines to start in the US next year, each with 10,000 participants. Another US vaccine is also heading into phase 2 next year. And could “lifelong,” or even decades-long, immunity against Covid be possible? A vaccine aiming for that is heading into its first clinical trial next year, also funded through Project NextGen.

In this update, there is also new clinical trial data for 3 next generation Covid vaccines. Those highlights and more below, are broken down into news from US Project NextGen, and 3 categories of next-generation Covid vaccines (definitions below).

• News from US (Project NextGen)
• Mucosal vaccine news
• Covid-19 “variant-proof” vaccine news
• Pancoronavirus vaccine news
• Addendum 1: Table of mucosal vaccines in clinical trials
• Addendum 2: Table of pancoronavirus vaccines with results
• Addendum 3: Definitions of vaccine types

News from US Project NextGen

• Funding for 3 vaccines to head into phase 2b trials, and a vaccine trying for durable “lifelong” immunity heading into its first-in-human trial.

Project NextGen is the major funding and support effort being run by 2 government agencies, BARDA and the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). (See background.) Last update, news of a few grants had come through. In October, Project NextGen announced the full list of grants in this round.

There are 3 major awards for large phase 2b trials. Phase 1 and 2 trials tend to be small. Then it’s a very big leap to a large phase 3 efficacy trial. A phase 2b trial is larger than the typical phase 2 trial – it’s a mini-efficacy trial. The Project NextGen phase 2b trials will each have 10,000 participants and run for a year. If the trials go the distance, they will each have been directly supported by US$300 to 400 million each, with a lot of support services behind the group, like clinical trial management and centralized laboratory services.

The 3 vaccines from the USA chosen for Project NextGen are:

• Gritstone Bio’s self-amplifying mRNA vaccine aiming to be “variant-proof”;
• Covi-Vac/CoviLiv: A live virus intranasal vaccine from Codagenix; and
• Castlevax viral vector intranasal vaccine, from a Mount Sinai Hospital spin-off.

There’s new data in conference presentations from Gritstone Bio – so there’s more on this vaccine later in this post (variant-proof vaccines). They have been running 3 phase 1 trials: in the US, in the UK, and another in South Africa including people living with HIV. Their phase 2b trial is planned to start in early 2024. (Records in my collection on this vaccine are here.)

I haven’t seen any recent news on the Codagenix vaccine, other than a press release for a conference presentation without additional data. There have been 2 phase 1 trials, and the vaccine is also in the WHO’s phase 2/3 Solidarity vaccines trial. (Records on this vax.)

There are 2 versions of the Mount Sinai/Castlevax intranasal vaccine in clinical trials – the US version, which has been in a phase 1 trial, and Patria, a version developed in Mexico. These vaccines also have injected versions. There is some news about Patria later in this post (mucosal vaccines). (Records on the US version here, and Patria here.)

In November, another US company, Tonix Pharmaceuticals, announced that they have received Project NextGen funding to go to into a phase 1 trial with 60 participants. The plan is for this to start in the second half of 2024. The Tonix vaccine is percutaneous, delivering droplets into the skin through small pricks. Called TNX-1800, it’s a viral vector vaccine, based on a horse pox. Results of preclinical studies for this vaccine: in primates and non-primates.

Pox-based vaccines aim for “lifelong” immunity – or at least decades – and prevention of transmission as well. So the Tonix vaccine is in a different category of next generation than the others I’ve been tracking. For convenience in my tracking collection, I’m tagging it in the “variant-proof” category.

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Mucosal vaccine news

• 3 mucosal vaccines from the US are heading into phase 2 trials, including 2 Project NextGen-supported phase 2b trials (see above) and an oral vaccine.
• There are new reports of clinical trial results for 2 of the authorized mucosal vaccines (from China and Iran).
• Several more preclinical studies either show reduced transmission after mucosal Covid vax, or reduced viral replication in the nose and upper airways.

Intranasal vaccines by Codagenix and Castlevax are headed into Project Next-Gen-supported phase 2b trials next year. The oral protein subunit vaccine developed by USSF and Vaxform is also headed into a phase 2 trial. The manufacturers announced that their phase 1 trial in New Zealand was successful, but didn’t include data.

There were further publications of clinical trials for 2 of the mucosal vaccines that are already in use:

• Razi Cov Pars (Iran): Phase 2 results, with 500 people testing the 3-dose primary course of this protein subunit vaccine – 2 injections followed by an intranasal dose. Follow-up was reported at 6 months.
• Convidecia (CanSino, China): This is a viral vector vaccine, delivered by oral inhalation (like an asthma inhaler). Their latest reported trial tested original versus bivalent versions of the vaccine as a booster after inactivated vaccines.

Another Covid vaccine that has a mucosal version may be getting close to authorization as a booster, though it’s not clear if that would include the intranasal booster. Patria is a version of the Mount Sinai/Castlevax vaccine, developed in Mexico by Avi-Mex. A government minister recently said at a press conference that it could be authorized as soon as December this year, though it was principally seen as part of later vaccination campaigns. A government press release in May included no data, but described the results of the clinical trials of this vaccine as successful. The phase 2/3 trial for Patria only included the injected version, so it’s not clear if the intranasal version might also be authorized.

I’ve added 11 preclinical reports on results for mucosal vaccines to my collection. These include:

• A study in hamsters tested airborne transmission of Covid after intramuscular or intranasal vaccination with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. The rate of transmission was reduced by roughly 60% for the injected group, and roughly 80% for the intranasal group.
• A study in primates that had previously been vaccinated with Moderna mRNA by injection, were boosted 5 months later with injected or a viral vector vaccine either via intranasal spray or inhaled aerosol. Another group received a Moderna booster. The viral vector vaccine was the one developed by Washington University (ChAd-SARS-CoV-2-S). After a challenge test to try to infect the animals with an Omicron variant (XBB.1.16), the mucosal booster animals had low to undetectable virus replication in the nose or lungs, while the injected animals had minimal protection in the nose, though strong protection in the lungs.
• Another study in primates used a different viral vector vaccine (GRAd+S-2P). In that study, an aerosol version provided “modestly improved protection” compared to injection. (Having the viral vector primary course followed by a BNT/Pfizer mRNA injection provided the most protection.)

Mucosal Covid vaccine overview:

• Mucosal vaccines are currently authorized for use in 6 countries: China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Morocco, and Russia. There are 5 of these vaccines: China has 2, and one of them is authorized in 3 countries.
• 27 have reached clinical trial, with at least one of those has been discontinued. These are tracked in a table below.
• 6 mucosal vaccines have reached phase 3 trials, including the 5 authorized vaccines.

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Covid-19 “variant-proof” vaccine news

This category doesn’t come with a table tracking vaccines. That’s because while I’m quite confident I’ve tagged all the vaccines in my collection that fall into the other 2 categories of next generation vaccines, I’m not sure how many can be classified as aiming to be “variant-proof”.

In October, Gritstone Bio presented more data from their 3 phase 1 trials at a conference. This is one of the vaccines starting phase 2b trials in the US next year, funded by Project NextGen (see above). The vaccine has also received funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Gates Foundation. If it makes it through to authorization, then some of this vaccine will be supplied to the international COVAX program.

In previous posts I reported on conference posters Gritstone Bio released on 2 of those trials back in April, as well as a paper for one of them. This latest group of posters covers all 3 of their trials, including new interim data of at least subsets of people in each. Here’s all the information in my collection now on these 3 trials if you want to dig into them:

• US trial (started in 2021): October poster (for subset who had the vaccine as a booster after a viral vector vaccine).
• UK trial (started in 2021): April poster (for people aged 60+), October poster (for people aged 60+). June publication of results for the subset who had previously been vaccinated with the viral vector vaccine from Oxford/AstraZeneca (my discussion of this here).
• South African trial, including people living with HIV (started in 2022): April poster, October poster.

Gritstone Bio reported that over 300 people have had doses of their coronavirus vaccine so far, and the phase 2b trial will see it go head-to-head against Covid vaccines approved in the US. That will help put the vaccine in perspective.

Meanwhile, in these phase 1 trials, there were no serious adverse events related to the vaccine. (I’ve got a background post on what the terms mean.) Severe reactions to this vaccine were common – severe chills, fever, or nausea for 8 out of 48 participants reported for the US trial, for example. That severity typically lasted for less than a day.

Another of the results that stands out is durability of immune response. It’s reported at 6 or 12 months – some 12-month data is pending – and they reported the immune response was maintained throughout.

The numbers are too small to assess efficacy, especially against moderate or severe Covid. However, for 2 of the trials they report that mild Covid was common. In the UK trial, when Omicron emerged, 8 of the 17 participants got mild Covid. In the US trial, 23 of 48 people got mild Covid. No one became so ill that they needed hospitalization. The rate for the third trial wasn’t reported.

Finally for this category of vaccines, among recent preclinical reports, the most notable are for the viral vector vaccine from Tonix funded by Project NextGen and discussed above. After studies in primates and non-primates, that vaccine going into a phase 1 trial next year.

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Pancoronavirus vaccine news

We’ve had major human epidemics or pandemics of 3 dangerous coronaviruses – 2 types of SARS, plus MERS. There are many other coronaviruses circulating among animals, too. Pancoronavirus vaccines aim to provide protection not only from variants of the SARS virus that causes Covid, but also some against the next new coronavirus that’s likely to spread among us.

Pancoronavirus vaccines aren’t as far along the development path as the other categories above – and there isn’t much to report this update. A table below this post keeps track of those with publicly available preclinical results. As far as I know, there are still only 3 vaccines in this category in phase 1 trials, with a fourth planned to start in early 2024:

• DIOSynVax (Cambridge University spin-off, UK);
• INSERM (France) – not yet underway;
• VBI Vaccines (Canada); and
• Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR, USA).

This update, there are preclinical results for 2 more pancoronavirus vaccines. One report, from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, tested a vaccine for a pangolin coronavirus in hamsters.

The other comes from the national science academy in Taiwan, Academia Sinica. The developers modified mRNA Covid vaccine by deleting multiple sugar “shields” within the spike protein to broaden immune response. Parts of the spike protein are among the features the virus causing Covid has in common with the original SARS and MERS, as well as other coronaviruses that infect humans, for example, causing common colds.

The developers tested versions of mRNA vaccine that weren’t modified, or that had these deletions in the spike protein from either the original Covid strain or from the Delta variant. Mice were injected with one of these vaccines, and then the developers tested for signs of immune response to several Covid variants, the original SARS, and MERS. They concluded that this approach could produce a broadly protective coronavirus vaccine.

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Addendum 1: Table of mucosal vaccines in clinical trials

* Indicates new entry since my previous update post.

Note: Where there is a link to “All records” for a vaccine, that’s in my public Zotero collection for the vaccine, and it may include non-mucosal studies for that vaccine. Notes on that collection are here. For details on how I track Covid vaccine progress to maintain that collection, see my background post.

Vaccine, type, manufacturer	Mucosal version(s)	Phase 1 to 2 clinical trials	Phase 3+ trial(s)	Phase 3+ efficacy or immunogenicity results
ACM-001 Protein subunit ACM Biolabs (Singapore/Switzerland) (All records)	Intranasal.	Phase 1. Results (press release only)
Ad5-nCoV (Convidecia Air) Viral vector (adenovirus) CanSino (China) (All records)	Inhaled through the mouth using a nebulizer.	Phase 1. Results. Phase 1/2. Results (plus second later preprint). Phase 2 (aged 6-17 years). * Booster adapted for variant.	10,420 people in China (Phase 3). Results. 1,350 people (Phase 3). 540 people, in Malaysia (Phase 3). 904 people in China (Phase 4). Results. 360 people (Phase 4). * 451 people (Phase 4). Results.	904 people: Comparison after 2-dose course of inactivated vax: Convidecia injection vs inhaled, protein subunit, or CoronaVac booster (Phase 4 results). Both injected & inhaled Convidecia had stronger impact on signs of immunity than the others; response after inhaled version was slower but longer-lasting than injected (which peaked then declined from day 14), better for Omicron though not as good for original virus. No measure of mucosal immunity used. * 451 people: Comparison of different versions adapted for variant, including a bivalent version. Booster of inhaled Convidecia after previous vaccination with inactivated vaccine. Signs of immune response to Omicron were higher for the bivalent vaccine, though lower for the original SARS-CoV-2 strain.
Ad5-S Viral vector (adenovirus) State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease/Guangzhou Enbao Biomedical Technology Co (China) (All records)	Intranasal.	Infection prevention study.
Ad5-triCoV/Mac & ChAd-triCoV/Mac Viral vector (adenovirus) McMaster University/Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Canada)	Aerosol.	Phase 1.
AdCOVID Viral vector (adenovirus) AltImmune (USA) (All records)	Intranasal.	Phase 1. Results – press release only. Discontinued after phase 1.
AdS+N Viral vector (adenovirus) ImmunityBio (USA) (All records)	Intranasal, oral capsule, or sublingual.	Phase 1 (oral). Phase 1 (sublingual).
Avacc 10 Protein subunit Intravacc (Netherlands) (All records)	Intranasal.	Phase 1.
bacTRL-Spike-1 Live attenuated Symvivo (Canada) (All records)	Oral.	Phase 1.
BBV154 (iNCOVACC) Viral vector (adenovirus) Bharat Biotech (India) (All records) This vaccine is ChAd-SARS-CoV-2-S Washington University in St Louis (USA) (All records)	Intranasal.	Phase 1. Phase 2. Small amount of data from these trials in the drug product information. Phase 2/3. Phase 2.	In India, 2-dose course of BBV154 vs 2-dose course of injected Covaxin inactivated vaccine (Phase 3 – and here). Results (previously in preprint). See also the drug product information. 875 people in India, booster trial (Phase 3).	2,971 previously unvaxed people were assigned for the intranasal iNCOVACC, 161 for injected Covaxin. This trial did not aim to assess disease outcomes. It took place during the first Omicron wave. Signs of immune response were higher for iNCOVACC than Covaxin. Adverse events rate very low (5% local and 3% systemic) – lower than for comparison group.
B/​HPIV3/​S-6P Viral vector (parainfluenza) NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) (USA) (All records)	Intranasal.	Phase 1.
BV-AdCoV-1 Viral vector (adenovirus) Wuhan BravoVax (China) (All records)	Inhaled through the mouth using a nebulizer.	Phase 1.
ChAdOx1 Viral vector (adenovirus) Oxford University (UK) (This is the AstraZeneca vax) (All records)	Intranasal.	Phase 1. Phase 1. Results.
CoV2-OGEN1 Protein subunit US Specialty Formulations/VaxForm (USA) (All records)	Oral.	Phase 1. (Fully recruited, final dose in November 2022.) * Press release stating successful (without data) and progressing to phase 2 trial.
COVI-VAC Live attenuated Codagenix (USA, with the Serum Institute of India) (All records)	Intranasal.	Phase 1. Press release in 2021 stating successful (without data) and progressing to phase 2/3. Preliminary results (conference abstract in 2021) and in a 2022 press release. * Results in 2023 (press release only). Phase 1 (booster).	Phase 2/3, as part of the WHO Solidarity Trial for Vaccines in Mali. (Protocol.)
CVXGA1-001 Viral vector (parainfluenza) CyanVac/Blue Lake Tech (USA) (All records)	Intranasal.	Phase 1. Phase 2.
DNS1-RBD (Pneucolin) Viral vector (influenza) Beijing Wantai BioPharm (China) (All records)	Intranasal.	Phase 1. Phase 2. Joint results.	30,990 participants in Colombia, Philippines, South Africa, Vietnam. * Results (previously in preprint.) 5,400 participants in Ghana (Phase 3).	Comparison of 2 doses of intranasal vaccine 14 days apart, with placebo control, during circulation of Omicron. Included >13,000 previously unvaccinated people. Efficacy shown 90 days after 2nd dose. There was some decline at 180 days. Efficacy against symptomatic Covid: No previous vax: 55.2% (CI 13.8 to 76.7) Inactivated: 38.2% (CI -49.2 to 74.4) Viral vector: 39.9% (CI -16.7 to 69.1) mRNA: 10.1% (CI -45.9 to 44.5) Efficacy against severe Covid: No previous vax: 66.7% (CI 8.3 to 87.9) Inactivated: 54.6% (CI -47.3 to 86.0) Viral vector: 50.0% (CI -6.8 to 76.6) mRNA: 19.5% (CI -39.2 to 53.4) Efficacy against hospitalization: 100% (CI -9.2 to 100) Adverse events were very low – similar to placebo. Less than 8% of people had a runny and/or blocked nose or sore throat.
GAM-COVID-VAC (rAd26-S – Sputnik Light) Viral vector (adenovirus) Gamaleya Research Institute (Russia)	Intranasal.	Phase 1/2	7,000 participants in Russia (Phase 3 or phase 2/3 – not clear).
Mambisa Protein subunit Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology (CIGB) (Cuba) (All records)	Intranasal drops.	Phase 1/2. Phase 1/2. Results (report of a conference presentation). Phase 2.
MV-014-212 Viral vector (RSV) Meissa Vaccines (USA) (All records)	Intranasal drops or spray.	Phase 1. Results (press release).
MVA-SARS-2ST Viral vector (MVA) German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF)/IDT Biologika (All records)	Inhalation.	Phase 1.
NDV-HXP-S Viral vector (Newcastle Disease Virus) Castlevax/Icahn Mt Sinai (All records)	Intranasal.	Phase 1. Results (press release).
Patria (NDV-HXP-S/AVX-COVID-12-HEXAPRO) Viral vector (Newcastle Disease Virus) Laboratorio Avi-Mex (Mexico) (All records on Patria, see NDV-HXP-S above for early development.)	Intranasal.	Phase 1. Results. Phase 2. Results (press release).	Phase 2/3 for injected version only. * Results (press release without data).
PRAK-03202 Protein subunit Oravax (USA) [Oravax was established by OraMed (Israel) to develop this vaccine, using Premas Biotech’s PRAK-03202 and their oral vaccine technology] (All records on oral PRAK-03202, and on intramuscular version)	Oral.	Phase 1 (in South Africa). Results (press release only).
Razi Cov Pars Protein subunit Razi Vaccine & Serum Research Institute (Iran) (All records)	Intranasal (third dose after 2 injections).	Phase 1. Results. Phase 2. * Results. Phase 1 to 2 (in 12-17 year-olds). Phase 4 (Booster). Phase 1 to 2 (in 5-17 year-olds).	41,128 people in Iran, comparing the 3-dose course to 2-dose inactivated Sinopharm Beijing vax (Phase 3). (Press report of results, in the first 24,000 participants.)	There were no hospitalizations for Covid in the Razi Cov Pars group and 5 in the Sinopharm group. The rate of Covid was reportedly more than twice as high in the Sinopharm group.
SC-Ad6-1 Viral vector (adenovirus) Moat Bio/Tetherex (USA) (All records)	Intranasal and inhaled.	Phase 1. Trial expanded to add an inhaled version (from 130 to 190 people). Results so far briefly mentioned in press release.
(Unnamed) Inactivated bacteria DreamTec (Hong Kong) (All records)	Oral.	Phase 1. Phase 1. Phase 1. Note: An article of preclinical results has been retracted over lack of ethics committee approval.
VXA-CoV2-1/VXA-CoV2-1.1-S Viral vector (adenovirus) Vaxart (USA) (All records)	Tablets.	Phase 1. Results. Phase 2. (Recruiting: started October 1, 2021.) Results (press release).	Omicron adaptation was developed for an Omicron challenge trial, originally planned for second half of 2023. This vax is now on hold, as Vaxart is trying to develop an oral pan-betacoronavirus vaccine.

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Addendum 2: Pancoronavirus vaccines with preclinical results

* Indicates new entry since previous update post.

Developer Country Vaccine name	Type of: Vaccine Coronavirus	Preclinical results	Clinical trial status
* Academia Sinica Taiwan (Taiwan) (Unnamed)	mRNA All	Non-primate
* Beijing University of Chemical Technology (China) (Unnamed)	Live attenuated pangolin coronavirus All	Non-primate
California Institute of Technology (Caltech) USA Mosaic-8b	Protein subunit Beta	Non-primate Non-primate Non-primate Primate, non-primate
Codiak USA exoVACC Pan Beta Coronavirus	Protein subunit Beta	Article on development Non-primate (conference slides) Non-primate (conference slides)	(This company began proceedings in bankruptcy court. See news.)
DIOSynvax UK DIOS-CoVax/ pEVAC-PS	mRNA Sarbeco	Non-primate Non-primate	Phase 1 trial (incl. protocol) (Up to 36 participants) Began December 2021. Fully recruited. Expanded to another city – no trial register entry found.
Duke University USA RBD–scNP	Protein subunit Beta	Primate Primate, non-primate * Non-primate (previously in preprint).
Francis Crick Institute UK (Unnamed)	Protein subunit with DNA boost All	Non-primate
Fudan University China HR1LS	Protein subunit Sarbeco	Primate, non-primate Primate Primate Non-primate
Guangdong Pharmaceutical University China (Unnamed)	Protein subunit All	Non-primate
INSERM Vaccine Research Institute/LinKinVax France PanCov (CD40.CoV2)	Protein subunit Sarbeco	Non-primate Primate, non-primate Primate Non-primate (conference poster)	Phase 1 clinical trial planned for early 2024.
Oragenics/Inspirevax/ National Research Council of Canada USA, Canada NT-CoV2-1	Protein subunit (Intranasal) All	Non-primate (original vax) Non-primate (original vax)
Osivax France OVX033	Protein subunit Sarbeco	Non-primate
Pennsylvania State University USA (Unnamed)	Protein subunit All	Non-primate
Scripps Research Institute USA (Unnamed)	Protein subunit Beta	Non-primate
SK Bioscience/ Uni of Washington/Uni of North Carolina at Chapel Hill South Korea, USA GBP511	Protein subunit Sarbeco	Primate, non-primate (testing Covid vaccine GBP510 against other sarbecoviruses)	(More on plans for adapting this vaccine – GBP510 authorized as SKYCovione.)
Stanford University USA DCFHP-alum	Protein subunit Sarbeco	Primate * Erratum (correction to legend in a figure). Non-primate
Sun Yat-Sen University China Unnamed)	Protein subunit Sarbeco	Non-primate
University of California Irvine USA (Unnamed)	Viral vector Beta	Non-primate Non-primate (mucosal) (There was also a paper about this vaccine’s development in 2021.)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill USA (Unnamed)	Viral vector Sarbeco	Non-primate
University of Toronto Canada (Unnamed)	Protein subunit Sarbeco	Non-primate
University of Washington USA (Unnamed)	Sarbeco	Non-primate
University of Wisconsin-Madison (PanCorVac) USA (Unnamed)	Protein subunit All	Non-primate Non-primate Non-primate
VBI Vaccines Canada VBI-2901	eVLP All	Non-primate Non-primate (Press release)	Phase 1 trial (103 participants) Began October 2022. Fully recruited. (Further background info.) Results (press release only). (101 participants) Previously vaccinated people boosted with 2 low or high doses, or 1 high-dose. Limited data reported. Some signs of immune response to a range of coronaviruses, mostly lasting at least 5 months. No major safety concerns.
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) USA SpFN 1B-06-PL	Protein subunit Beta	Non-primate Non-primate Non-primate (incl RFN) Non-primate Primate Primate Primate (with J&J vax)	Phase 1 trial (29 participants) Began April 2021. Results described as “positive” – no data reported yet. Additional detail on phase 1 trial.
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) USA RFN	Protein subunit Beta	Non-primate (incl SpFN) Primate
Yale University USA (Unnamed)	mRNA All	Non-primate Non-primate
Yale University/Xanadu Bio USA (Unnamed)	Protein subunit, intranasal booster Sarbeco	Non-primate

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Addendum 3: Definitions of vaccine types

• Mucosal vaccines: These enter the body the way the virus does – through mucosal tissues. It’s hoped that provides defence against infection. They can be administered via different routes – squirts or drops in the nose, inhaled through the mouth through a nebulizer (similar to an asthma medication), or in tablet, capsule, or sublingual form.
• Pan-SARS-CoV-2 or “variant-proof” vaccines: These aim to provide protection against any variant of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 – including future variants.
• Pancoronavirus can be targeted to:
  • the “subgroup” the 2 SARS viruses came from (the sarbecovirus subgenus),
  • coronaviruses from the next level up (the genus, betacoronavirus, which includes lethal diseases like MERS, as well as common cold viruses), or
  • the whole coronavirus family – it has 4 genuses, including betacoronavirus and alphacoronavirus (with more common cold viruses).

I classify a vaccine as a pancoronavirus one when the developers are explicitly targeting coronaviruses more broadly than SARS-CoV-2, and have tested for signs of response to non-SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus(es) (or clearly plan to).

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You can keep up with my work at my newsletter, Living With Evidence. And I’m active on Mastodon: @hildabast@mastodon.online 

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For details on how I track Covid vaccine progress, see my background post. Notes on my collection of studies are here. The collection is in a public Zotero library you can dig into here.

Previous update posts on next generation Covid vaccines:

1. Mucosal vaccines (March 2022)
2. Pan-SARS-Cov-2 and pancoronavirus (July 2022)
3. Mucosal vaccines (July 2022)
4. Mucosal vaccines (September 2022)
5. Mucosal vaccines (April 2023)
6. Pancoronavirus vaccines (April 2023)
7. Next generation (May 2023)
8. Next generation (June 2023)
9. Next generation (July 2023)
10. Next generation (August 2023)
11. Next generation (September 2023)

All my Absolutely Maybe Covid-19 vaccine posts

All previous Covid-19 posts at Absolutely Maybe

My posts at The Atlantic, at WIRED, and debunking posts at my personal website.

Disclosures: My interest in Covid-19 vaccine trials is as a person worried about the virus, as my son is immunocompromised: I have no financial or professional interest in the vaccines. I have worked for an institute of the NIH in the past, but not the one working on vaccines (NIAID). More about me.

The cartoons are my own (CC BY-NC-ND license). (More cartoons at Statistically Funny.)