Medicago, GSK Report 71% Efficacy Rate From Plant-Based COVID-19 Vaccine Study
Quebec-based biopharmaceutical firm Medicago and healthcare conglomerate GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) announce today the results from its global Phase 3 efficacy study of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The data showed an overall efficacy rate of 71% against all variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the pandemic disease.
The Canadian firm’s plant-based vaccine candidate is combined with GSK’s pandemic adjuvant. The firm is using a unique technology to produce virus-like particles, designed to mimic the virus structure for the immune system to recognize ahead of the potential infection.
The study, started in March 2021, was conducted with over 24,000 subjects ages 18 years old and above across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. The vaccine was administered in two doses of 3.75 µg, 21 days apart.
The vaccine candidate also showed a 75.3% efficacy rate specifically against the Delta variant and 88.6% against the Gamma variant. The emerging Omicron variant has not been considered yet in the study.
During the study, the firm reported no related serious adverse events while reactions to the vaccine were “generally mild to moderate and transient”, with “symptoms lasting on average only 1 to 3 days.”
The biopharmaceutical firm plans to seek regulatory approval from Health Canada as part of its rolling submission. The phase 3 results are also expected to be released in a peer-reviewed publication.
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