Singapore has approved the clinical trials for Arcturus Therapeutics Covid-19 vaccine candidate, which is being developed in partnership with the Duke-NUS Medical School.
Arcturus Therapeutics, a San Diego, California-based biopharmaceutical company, in partnership with Singapore’s Duke-NUS announced that their human dosing tests will start as soon as possible.
In a joint statement, Arcturus and Duke-NUS said the volunteer study would involve 108 adults and would study several dose levels.
According to the World Health Organizatio, there were more than 140 candidate vaccines in pre-clinical evaluation and 24 in clinical evaluation.
During the preclinical data for the Arcturus Therapeutics Covid-19 vaccine, researchers determined that a single 0.2, 2 or 10 microgram dose led to neutralizing antibodies continuing to increase over 50 days. They were able to test for antibodies in mouse serum every 10 days after vaccination for a 60-day period.
Professor Ooi Eng Eong, deputy director of the emerging infectious diseases program at Duke-NUS, said in a statement that “a single dose of this vaccine may be sufficient to trigger robust and durable immune responses.”
Arcturus President and CEO Joseph Payne also reacted to the preclinical data, saying “a potential single administration, at very low doses” triggers an immune response.
Other coronavirus vaccine candidates
The Moderna coronavirus vaccine trial presents promising data, according to a newly released report from the peer-reviewed New England Journal of Medicine.
Moderna announced that its potential coronavirus vaccine produced a “robust” immune response in all 45 patients during the early stage human trial. With this, Moderna’s stock saw a 16% increase in after-hours trading on the news.
Findings showed that all 45 patients manifested neutralizing antibodies, which scientists consider important for shaping immunity. The clinical trial provided more favorable data that the coronavirus vaccine can protect people from the disease.
The Moderna coronavirus vaccine trial gave each participant a 25, 100 or 250 microgram dose, with 15 people in each dose group. They took two doses of the potential vaccine.
A “robust” immune response in all participants unfolded in all dose cohorts after two vaccinations, according to Moderna. The company added that the levels of neutralizing antibodies in the high dose group were four times higher than in patients who recovered from Covid-19.
Meanwhile, the potential coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech has shown strong results based its latest data.
German biotech firm BioNTech and US drugmaker Pfizer have confirmed the safety of their Covid-19 vaccine, which induced an immune response in patients.
They noted that the data manifested an induction of a high level of T-cell responses against the novel coronavirus.
During the trial, volunteers took two doses of the vaccine, and then they produced virus-neutralizing antibodies, which was also what happened to the US trial.
The companies said that the data is accessible on an online preprint server at medrxiv and is undergoing scientific peer-review for potential publication.
However, coronavirus immunity may only last within a few months, according to a study in the UK about the longevity of potential coronavirus vaccines.
The team from Kings College London discovered that antibody responses to the coronavirus can reach its top performance after onset of symptoms. However, coronavirus immunity may wane after a little as two months.
