“Studies are apace on now Phase 3 clinical trials for two novel Covid-19 vaccine platforms,” said CBS news in a special dispatch.
The studies have been published in the ‘New England Journal of Medicine showing promise of results for two novel Covid-19 vaccine platforms — a plant-based coronavirus-like particle vaccine, and a receptor-binding domain (RBD)-dimer-based vaccine.
Vaccines Perform Well Despite Variants
The first vaccine is a plant-based particle vaccine developed by Medicago/GSK, which was tested on participants in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States as early as March 15 to September 2, 2021, CBS said.
The vaccine, CoVLP, was administered to candidates in two doses within a frequency of 21 days and the results were compared to a placebo. The study continued until at least 160 Covid-19 cases were detected in participants at least seven days following the second dose of the vaccine.
A total of 24,141 volunteers participated in the trial. Vaccine efficacy was claimed to be 69.5 percent (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 56.7 percent to 78.8 percent) against any symptomatic Covid-19 caused by five variants that were identified by sequencing, the study found.
The results were even stronger for efficacy against moderate-to-severe disease, at 78.8 percent (95 percent CI, 55.8 percent to 90.8 percent).
No severe cases or deaths were recorded in the vaccine group. The vaccine group had more adverse effects, but none were severe, the study reported.
“CoVLP+AS03, like all currently deployed vaccines, was designed to target the original viral strain, but no case caused by this strain was identified,” the study said, adding, “The context in which vaccines are currently being tested has clearly changed since early in the pandemic.”
The performance of CoVLP is similar to the current vaccines in use against the current strains. Meaning they are effective against the Alpha, Delta and Kappa variants.
The second vaccine, ZF2001, was tested at 31 clinical sites in Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Ecuador, and later in China. The vaccine made by Anhui Zhifei Longcom of China was given to participants in a randomized manner of three doses within 30 days of each one.
