CANBERRA – Australia’s national science agency has found that “warm” Covid-19 vaccines suitable for remote locations are effective against all key variants of the virus.
In a study published yesterday, researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) evaluated the efficacy of heat-tolerant coronavirus vaccine formulations developed by the Indian Institute of Science and biotechnology company Mynvax.
They found that the formulations triggered a strong immune response against all SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (COVs) in mice and hamsters, reported the Xinhua news agency.
“Our data shows that all the formulations of Mynvax tested resulted in antibodies capable of the consistent and effective neutralisation of the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta SARS-CoV-2 COVs,” said S.S. Vasan, CSIRO’s Covid-19 project leader and report co-author, in a media release.
Crucially, the vaccine formulations remain stable for a month at 37°C, and 90 minutes at 100°C.
In comparison, the Pfizer-BioNTech jab must be held in specialised cold storage at sub-zero temperatures, while the AstraZeneca vaccine has to be kept at between 2°C and 8°C, making them unsuitable for remote and resource-limited areas.
The data collected by CSIRO will be used to select which Mynvax formulations progress to human clinical trials in India later this year.
Rob Grenfell, CSIRO’s health and biosecurity director, said the study proves the need for ongoing global scientific collaboration to develop more Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.
“A thermostable or ‘warm’ vaccine is critical for remote or resource-limited locations with extremely hot climates that lack reliable cold storage supply chains.” – Bernama, July 16, 2021
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