Picking Up Steam: Next Generation Covid Vaccine Update 14

The race for next generation vaccines is steadily heating up now. And this month, we’ve passed a major milestone: The first data suggesting that an already-authorized nextgen vaccine could outperform the BNT/Pfizer vaccine – with its manufacturers ramping up production facilities for potentially wide distribution in the next year or so.

Most vaccines that reach first-in-human trials don’t make it all the way to major regulator approval. The odds improve, though, for those that make it to mid-stage trials (phase 2). On top of that, there’s a lot of variation in effectiveness between vaccines – so a good range of approaches reaching that mid-stage increases the odds of having much better vaccines.

Though it’s not going at the blistering pace of the early pandemic, the scene is encouraging now. The number of next generation vaccines moving past first-in-human trials is into double digits. With another 2 pancoronavirus vaccines starting clinical trials this month, there’s even a handful of vaccines reaching the early stage at least in this tough category. And the body of clinical evidence seems to be growing steadily, too: We’ve been getting at least some results for an average of 2 clinical trials a month for the last 6 months.

It’s still early days in many ways, though. Even for late-stage trials, most of the efficacy data is for signs of immunity only. We don’t know critical things, especially whether or not there will be mucosal vaccines that can make a major – and lasting – impact on getting and transmitting infection in people. But at least it looks as though more durable boosters are on the horizon.

There’s a lot to get to this month for all types of vaccines, including news from clinical trials for 3 vaccines. This update starts with news from Project NextGen, with funding for another mini-efficacy trial for a mucosal vaccine. After that, I have recent results broken down into 3 categories of next-generation Covid vaccines (definitions below).

• News from US Project NextGen
• Mucosal vaccine news
• Durable or “variant-proof” vaccine news
• Pancoronavirus vaccine news
• Addendum 1: List of authorized vaccines (with countries)
• Addendum 2: Table of mucosal vaccines in clinical trials
• Addendum 3: Table of pancoronavirus vaccines with results
• Addendum 4: Definitions of vaccine types

News from US Project NextGen

A fourth vaccine received funding in late January – for a phase 2b clinical trial for the oral vaccine from Vaxart. As with the others, the trial is to be for 10,000 participants. This vaccine has released phase 1 trial results, as well as a press release for phase 2 in 2022. The vaccine was later adapted for variants, and it was reportedly on hold as they were developing a pancoronavirus vaccine. (Records in my collection for this vax here.)

This brings the number of Project NextGen-funded trials to 5. The 4 previously announced are:

• Phase 1 trial for TNX-1800 from Tonix Pharmaceuticals. This is a viral vector vaccine based on a horse pox, and aiming for lifelong immunity. That trial is planned for the second half of 2024. (Preclinical studies for this vaccine: in primates and non-primates.)
• Phase 2b for Gritstone Bio’s self-amplifying mRNA vaccine aiming to be “variant-proof.” The trial had been planned for early 2024, but has been pushed back to later this year to allow for manufacturing improvements. (Records on this vax.)
• Phase 2b for a live virus intranasal vaccine from Codagenix. (Records on this vax.)
• Phase 2b for the viral vector intranasal vaccine from Castlevax, the Mount Sinai spin-off. Recent results for this mucosal vaccine below.

The original plan for Project NextGen was to fund phase 1 and 2 trials in up to 10 vaccines. I haven’t tried to keep track of how much funding has already been earmarked, so I don’t know how many more awards are possible.

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Mucosal vaccine news

Clinical results: Patria vaccine from AviMex (Mexico)

Patria is the Mexican-produced version of the viral vector vaccine developed by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. The Patria vaccines is produced in both injected and intranasal versions.

The US vaccine is still called by the development name – NDV-HXP-S, short for (inactivated) Newcastle Disease Virus and HexaPro-Spike. The HexaPro-Spike is a modification of the coronavirus protein spike that aims to make vaccines more potent. Development of the intranasal version the US version is being progressed by a Mount Sinai spinoff, Castlevax, and it’s one of the vaccines going into a Project NextGen-funded mini efficacy trial in the US.

Meanwhile, the injected version of the Patria vaccine passed the first drug regulatory hurdle in Mexico at the end of January – an evaluation of safety and efficacy data. There will now be more evaluation of the vaccine’s efficacy against variants, which could lead to authorization and rollout.

In this update, there are 2 new reports from clinical trials of Patria – a phase 2 trial of an intramuscular versus intranasal booster, and phase 2/3 trial results for a booster of the injected version.

The booster study included 158 participants who had been previously vaccinated with any of the approved vaccines in Mexico – mostly one of the viral vector vaccines, with few having mRNA. Participants also had to have low enough signs of immunity, that a booster could have a measurable impact. They were randomized to injected or intranasal Patria vaccine, or to injected or intranasal placebo. After 2 weeks, when data collection for adverse reactions was done, the participants in the placebo groups received a booster dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. There were Delta and Omicron waves during the trial.

The proportion of people with large increases in antibodies in the blood was higher for the injected booster than intranasal – close to 80% for injected, and around 50% for intranasal. The report didn’t include any measurement of signs of mucosal immunity.

There wasn’t a major difference in the proportion of participants reporting adverse reactions to the intranasal vaccine versus injected – intranasal reactions were common, and so were injection site reactions. The rate of adverse reactions for Patria was higher than it was for the people in the placebo group who got the later AstraZeneca booster – it’s a viral vector vaccine, and was the most common vaccine people had for their primary series.

The phase 2/3 trial of the injected version of Patria had over 4,000 participants. They were randomized to a booster of either Patria or the AstraZeneca vaccine. The Patria vaccine was designed to find out if it was non-inferior to the AstraZeneca vaccine: It passed that hurdle. It’s possible that it is superior, but the trial wasn’t powered to determine that.

New preclinical results:

I’ve added 7 preclinical reports on results for mucosal vaccines to my collection since the last update. These include:

• sCPD9 from RocketVax and Freie Universität Berlin: This is an intranasal live-attenuated vaccine. This study tested the effectiveness of preventing transmission of strains of Omicron among non-primates, comparing the intranasal RocketVax vaccine to the BNT/Pfizer vaccine.
• Ad5.SARS-CoV-2-S1 from Gaphas Pharmaceutical and University of Pittsburgh: This is an intranasal viral vector vaccine. This study tested an Omicron-adapated booster in non-primates.
• ChAd-SARS-CoV-2-BA.5-S from Washington University of St Louis (USA): This study includes versions of the intranasal viral vector vaccine further developed by Bharat Biotech in India and authorized there as iNCOVACC, tested in non-primates: An adaptation for the BA.5 strain of Omicron, compared to the original form, the adapted version alone, and a bivalent version (including both).
• Unnamed vaccine from Pennsylvania State University (USA): This is an intranasal protein subunit vaccine, studied in non-primates.

Mucosal Covid vaccine overview:

• Mucosal vaccines are currently authorized for use in 6 countries. However, none have been authorized by a drug regulatory agency designated stringent, or listed, by WHO.
• 27 have reached clinical trial, although 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, and one from the US.

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Durable or “variant-proof” vaccine news

This month, there was news on results from clinical trials for 2 vaccines that have gone head-to-head with the BNT/Pfizer vaccine. Both are ones to keep a close eye on: LUNAR-COV19 from Arcturus, and the GeoVax vaccine, developed by the City of Hope cancer center and the NIH’s National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Note: This is a rather vague category, including vaccines that aim to be more durable. I don’t include a table for tracking these 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”.

LUNAR-COV19 from Arcturus (USA)

Last update, the big news for this category was the authorization in Japan of LUNAR-COV19, the self-amplifying mRNA vaccine from Arcturus, that will also be manufactured globally by CSL Seqirus, with factories being built in Australia and the US. The developers had also lodged an application with the European Medicines Agency – the Agency isn’t listing it as under evaluation yet.

I included an overview of the trials for this vaccine last update. One of them was a phase 3 immunogenicity and safety trial using LUNAR-COV19 as a booster in people who had been previously been vaccinated with BNT/Pfizer or Moderna Covid vaccine. The LUNAR-COV19 booster went head-to-head with the BNT/Pfizer vaccine. It was apparently the original version of the BNT/Pfizer vaccine, while the LUNAR-COV19 vaccine is based on a later strain (the pre-Omicron, D614G variant). At a month, signs of immune response were similar for the original Covid strain, but superior for LUNAR-COV19 against Omicron strains.

Data for 3 and 6 months from the participants that did not have signs of Covid infection have now been published. It’s just a short report, and it doesn’t include details of the people who had signs of infection, so we don’t know how many got sick – and while there were fewer in the LUNAR-COV19, there’s no statistical analysis. By six months, neutralizing antibodies had fallen off substantially for the BNT-Pfizer vaccine, especially against Omicron strains. For LUNAR-COV19, there was substantially less waning, though there was some.

Data for 12 months after vaccination is still to come. This trial was powered to detect differences in signs of immune response, so we won’t know how much additional protection this vaccine is likely to provide. The developers argue that the combination of greater durability and better response against Omicron – both vaccines are pre-Omicron versions – suggest this vaccine is more variant-proof.

(Records in my collection for this vaccine here.)

GEO-CM04S1 from GeoVax (USA)

This is a viral vector vaccine, based on modified Ankara virus (MVA). It was developed at the City of Hope with the National Cancer Institute, to better serve immunocompromised people on cancer treatment. It’s being developed with Geovax.

This group previously published data for 13 participants with blood cancer, a subgroup of participants in a phase 2 trial. My previous summary on this: Their immune responses were similar or superior to those of healthy people receiving the vaccine and healthcare workers vaccinated with the BNT/Pfizer vaccine. And people were still showing signs of immunity after 6 months.

This month the company issued a press release about phase 2 results from another of their trials. It’s a phase 1/2 trial. There were 63 healthy adults, who had all previously been vaccinated with mRNA, either the BNT/Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. The trial is comparing doses of the GeoVax vaccine. The results at a month, they say, are positive, but there’s no additional data.

No word yet on next steps for this vaccine.

(Records in my collection for this vaccine here.)

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Pancoronavirus vaccine news

Pancoronavirus vaccines aim to provide protection not only from variants of the SARS virus that causes Covid, but also against the next new coronavirus to spread among humans. Until recently, only 3* had reached clinical trial: Now another 2 have first-in-human trials. Both are in France. Plus there are preclinical results for 2 vaccines being developed in California.

New clinical trials:

• OVX033 from Osivax: A protein subunit vaccine, aiming to protect against sarbecoviruses, the subgroup of coronaviruses that both the SARS viruses come from. Participants are being recruited in Paris to test the safety and immunogenicity of three dosages – they’re aiming for 48 participants. (Records on this vaccine.)
• PanCov from LinkInVax, developed by INSERM: A protein subunit vaccine aiming at sarbecoviruses. It was developed by INSERM, the French national agency equivalent to the US NIH. A combined phase 1 and 2 trial has been registered to test this vaccine, with and without an adjuvant at first. They aim to recruit 240 people – with a planned start in February.

A table below this post keeps track of vaccines I’ve added to this category so far that have publicly available preclinical results. There are new preclinical results for 2 vaccines from California in this update.

• University of California Irvine with TechImmune: A new report describes the developers’ method for developing the vaccine, and the results of challenging vaccinated hamsters with the Delta virus. In addition, one of the group’s earlier reports of preclinical results for this vaccine previously in preprint has been published in a journal.
• CalTech: Another study in both primates and non-primates has been released for CalTech’s Mosaic vaccine. This report analyzes signs of immunity in animals previously vaccinated with a range of vaccines, then boosted with Mosaic-8b, a version of Mosaic-8b without SARS-CoV-2 protein, and some other alternatives.

* The other pancoronavirus vaccines in phase 1 trials are from DIOSynVax (Cambridge University spin-off, UK), VBI Vaccines (Canada), and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR, USA).

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Addendum 1: List of authorized next generation Covid vaccines (with countries)

There are now 7 next-generation Covid vaccines authorized in 7 countries. Only one has been authorized by a drug regulatory agency designated stringent, or listed, by WHO – it’s in bold. I’ve listed the vaccines in 2 categories, in order of date of first authorization.

Mucosal:

• Razi Cov Pars (Iran), intranasal protein subunit vaccine: Iran (October 2021).
• Sputnik (Russia), intranasal viral vector vaccine: Russia (April 2022).
• Convidecia (China), inhaled viral vector vaccine: China (September 2022), Morocco (November 2022), Indonesia (March 2023).
• iNCOVACC (USA/India), intranasal viral vector vaccine: India (September 2022).
• Pneucolin (China), intranasal viral vector vaccine: China (December 2022).

Self-amplifying mRNA:

• Gemcovac (India): India (June 2022).
• LUNAR-COV19 (USA): Japan (November 2023).

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Addendum 2: 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. (Fully recruited, completion expected early in 2024.)
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.	* Phase 2/3 for injected version only: Results.
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 had been on hold, as Vaxart is trying to develop an oral pan-betacoronavirus vaccine. However, it’s now set to run a phase 2b trial.

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Addendum 3: 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 * Primate, non-primate
Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin Germany NILV-PanCoVac	Viral vector All	Non-primate (mucosal)
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 in the UK) Began December 2021. Fully recruited. Expanded to another city – no trial register entry found.
Duke University USA RBD–scNP	Protein subunit Beta	Primate Primate Primate, non-primate Non-primate (previously in preprint) Primate, non-primate
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/RBDv)	Protein subunit Sarbeco	Non-primate Primate, non-primate Primate Non-primate (conference poster)	* Phase 1/2 trial (Up to 240 participants in France) Booster trial, planned to start recruiting in February 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	* Phase 1 trial (48 participants in France) First participant vaccinated in February 2024.
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. See the University of Washington research listed below in this table.
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/Techimmune USA (Unnamed)	Viral vector Beta	* Non-primate (previously in preprint) Non-primate (mucosal) (previously in preprint) * Non-primate (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)	Protein subunit Sarbeco	Non-primate (Previously in preprint) Non-primate	(See “GBP511” above in this table.)
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 in Canada) 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 in the US) 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 4: 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. I include vaccines that aim for greater durability in this group.
• 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 cartoon is my own (CC BY-NC-ND license). (More cartoons at Statistically Funny.)