Candidates: Two lead Covigenix vaccine candidates
Category: VAX
Types: Pan-coronavirus DNA vaccines based on the company’s Fusogenix drug delivery platform, a proteo-lipid vehicle (PLV) formulation using a novel mechanism of action to deliver molecules, intact and unmodified, directly into the cytosol of target cells.
Status: Entos said June 25 that it selected two lead Covigenix candidates from its prototyping program launched at the onset of the pandemic, based on strong preclinical results demonstrating high immunogenicity, high levels of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies, and the potential for no antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE).
According to Entos, the two lead candidates showed high potency, ADE safety assessment, high immunogenicity, and efficacy—in addition to stimulating neutralizing antibody levels and balancing T helper cell immunity in mouse models. No weight loss was observed at multiple doses of vaccine candidates.
In collaboration with academic and industrial partners, Entos said it rapidly developed a panel of recombinant plasmid DNA vaccine candidates encoding in silico-optimized and conserved regions of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
Entos has been awarded a C$4.2 million ($3.1 million) grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Research Nova Scotia (RNS), and the Institute for Ageing (IA) to further develop the Covigenix vaccine candidates through animal challenge studies and human clinical trials.
In addition, Entos said it will partner with the Clinical Trials Research Center at the Canadian Center for Vaccinology (CCfV) in Nova Scotia to launch Phase I/II human clinical trials designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, immunogenicity and efficacy of the Covigenix vaccine candidates in late July. Entos aims to develop a Covigenix DNA vaccine for COVID-19 in one year.
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
