Progress in COVID-19 Animal Vaccines
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rogress in COVID-19 Animal Vaccines Development

There have been significant steps made in the development of COVID-19 animal vaccines. A spinout company from the University of Plymouth, the Vaccine Group, has revealed that in pre-animal trial laboratory testing, its first two possible vaccines have proved to be successful.

Eliminating the COVID-19 causing the SARS-CoV-2 virus in existing animal sources by developing vaccines is its aim now. To make sure that cats, which have already been shown to get the COVID-19 infection, and other pets do not become a reservoir for future outbreaks, this vaccine could be used.

The Vaccine Group’s Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Associate Professor (Reader) in Virology and Immunology at the University of Plymouth, Dr. Michael Jarvis said, “The SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged originally from animals like all other human coronaviruses. Cases of human to animal transmissions of the virus have already been reported. The animal to human transmission from mink appears to be the first evidence of this recently.”

The importance of being able to control this virus for the long-term is highlighted through the recent re-emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in Beijing. A key tool in the fight against this pandemic could be the ability to control SARS-CoV-2 and prevent COVID-19 re-emerging from animal populations. At sites where SARS-CoV-2 replicates, our vaccine platform appears able to induce immunity. Positive data would open up the possibility of rapidly moving to a human vaccine whilst we are initially testing the efficacy of our vaccines in animals.”

As it is still unclear which approaches to creating effective and durable immunity will work in practice in both animals and humans, The Vaccine Group (TVG) will be able to test different antigens and approaches to stimulating immunity by developing a range of vaccines.

Within eight weeks of the company’s first receiving antigen protein sequences, success with the first vaccine candidate was achieved. The current vaccine candidates are two of four for SARS-CoV-2 currently under development.

The vaccines should stimulate an immune response once in the target animal as the in-vitro expression of the SARS-CoV-2 antigens demonstrates they have been successfully incorporated into TVG’s vaccine platform. For animal trials, the stocks of the first two candidates are being prepared. The longer-term potential of human vaccines is also being investigated by the company.

Hoping that initial expression data will be obtained over the coming weeks, the company is also continuing to develop the other candidates.

So far, around £9million in grant funding from the US, UK, and Chinese governments have backed the University of Plymouth spinout and its international partners.

The Vaccine Group has been reporting strong progress on its other vaccines along with the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. The company announced work on a bovine mastitis vaccine in March this year, demonstrating the technology’s ability to deliver strong, targeted immune responses. Once the testing facilities become available, the company said it was ready for initial animal trials of the vaccines to combat bovine tuberculosis and African Swine Fever Virus. The company is also developing vaccines based on benign forms of the herpes virus, and a vaccine against Streptococcus suis.

Matthew White, the Chief Commercialisation Officer of Frontier IP, the University’s commercialization partner supporting The Vaccine Group said that the team has developed these vaccine candidates with remarkable speed. They are hopeful that animal trials will demonstrate positive results based on previous work with the same vaccine delivery platform.

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Progress in COVID-19 Animal Vaccines Development