Candidate: FlowVax™ COVID-19
Category: VAX
Type: Rapid synthetic peptide vaccine designed to protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection by targeting antigens at the center of the virus, which are least likely to mutate. FlowVax COVID-19 is an adjuvanted, room temperature stable, biodegradable microsphere peptide vaccine targeting nucleocapsid, loaded with a suite of 16 peptides with > 95% predicted world-wide population coverage. The vaccine can be given by injection or nasal spray.
Status: Flow Pharma said April 8 researchers at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) at Galveston will begin testing FlowVax COVID-19 by challenging nonhuman primates with SARS-CoV-2 after the animals are vaccinated this month with FlowVax COVID-19.
The company has posted a presentation on its website noting that its COVID-19 vaccine uses the same platform as its FlowVax Ebola targeting nucleocapsid that had been shown effective in a mouse model at UTMB.
“Nucleocapsid proteins within COVID-19 contain multiple class I epitopes with predicted HLA [human leukocyte antigen] restrictions consistent with broad population coverage. A similar approach to a CTL [cytotoxic T-lymphocytes] vaccine design may be possible for that virus,” Flo Pharma Founder, CEO, and Director Reid Rubsamen MD, and colleagues concluded in a preprint paper posted March 9 on bioRxiv.
Flow Pharma’s vaccines use patented Size Exclusion Antigen Presentation Control (SEAPAC™) technology based on making vaccine microspheres the same size as human white blood cells.
COVID-19: 200 Candidates and Counting
To navigate through the >200 potential therapeutic and vaccine options for COVID-19, GEN has grouped the candidates into four broad categories based on their developmental and (where applicable) clinical progress:
● FRONT RUNNER – the most promising therapeutics/vaccines based on clinical progress, favorable data or both.
● DEFINITELY MAYBE – earlier phases with promising partners, or more advanced candidates in development that have generated uneven data
● KEEPING AN EYE ON… – interesting technology, attracting notable partners, or both, but preliminary data.
● TOO SOON TO TELL – longshots pending additional experimental and/or clinical data.
GEN has also tagged the most common treatment types:
● ANTIVIRAL
● VAX
● ANTIBODY
● RNA
