June 4, 2020 -- Intravacc announced that it is partnering with Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) and Utrecht University for the development of an intranasal vaccine against COVID-19. The public-private partnership will combine Intravacc viral vector technologies with animal technologies from WBVR and coronavirus expertise from Utrecht.
The vaccine will consist of a Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vector that expresses the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. NDV has been shown to be safe for intranasal/intratracheal delivery in mammals, including nonhuman primates. Intranasal vaccines induce mucosal and systemic immunity as well as conferring protection at other mucosal sites such as the lungs or intestinal tract.
Intravacc will develop a scalable vaccine production process using its Food and Drug Administration-approved Vero cell platform in expectation of good manufacturing practice production. The vaccine will be developed using WBVR's reverse genetics NDV vaccine vector technique.