Candidate: MV-014-212
Category: VAX
Type: Intranasal live-attenuated chimeric vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2, developed through the company’s the company’s AttenuBlock™ platform, which applies rational and precise codon deoptimization and other genetic strategies designed to produce hundreds of targeted mutations into the RSV genome, in order to control over viral protein expression.
2021 Status: Meissa said March 16 that it received clearance from the FDA for a Phase 1 clinical study of MV-014-212. The Phase 1, open-label, dose-escalation study (NCT04798001) is designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of a single intranasal dose of MV-014-212 in 130 healthy adult participants between the ages of 18 and 69 years. The company plans to begin enrolling by the end of March at two sites in the U.S.
As an intranasal vaccine, Meissa reasons, MV-014-212 is intended to generate both mucosal (IgA) antibodies in the nasal cavity and antibodies that circulate in the blood (serum), compared with injected vaccines that typically induce circulating but not mucosal antibodies.
Meissa cited initial preclinical data in nonhuman primates showing MV-014-212 to have induced a SARS-CoV-2 Spike-specific mucosal IgA response, and to have generated serum neutralizing antibodies against Spike-expressing pseudovirus. The vaccine was also highly protective against SARS-CoV-2 challenge in the upper and lower respiratory tract, the company said.
COVID-19: 300 Candidates and Counting
To navigate through the >300 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
