Instead of injection
A pill with a flu vaccine is successfully being tested
Georgy Golovanov, Hi-tech+
The second phase of clinical trials of the influenza vaccine in oral form has demonstrated impressive effectiveness. Tablets are no less effective and safe than injections. The term during which they will appear in pharmacies has been named.
The immunity of the population is of great importance for limiting epidemics of infectious diseases. The more people who get the vaccine, the better. However, the lack of effective oral vaccines makes vaccination difficult. And the success in the fight against polio is largely due to its invention.
Most modern vaccines are made in the form of injections. Tablets would be cheaper to manufacture and easier to distribute, but the situation is complicated by the hostile environment of the gastrointestinal tract.
The biotech company Vaxart has been developing an oral form of the flu vaccine for several years. Her latest breakthrough is the completion of the second phase of clinical trials demonstrating the effectiveness of flu pills, according to a company press release.
Article by Liebowitz et al. Efficacy, immunogenicity, and safety of an oral influenza vaccine: a placebo-controlled and active-controlled phase 2 human challenge study published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases – VM.
179 healthy adults participated in the double-blind test with the control group. All of them received a dose of an experimental oral drug, an injection of Fluzone vaccine or a placebo. After 90 days, everyone was injected with the flu virus.
The oral vaccine did not cause any side effects, and also turned out to be slightly more effective than the most effective of modern injected vaccines.
Compared with placebo, it showed a 39% reduction in clinical signs of the disease and a 47% reduction in contagiousness. Injection Results: 27% and 43%, respectively.
"The results confirm the value of our oral vaccine, in particular, for pathogens spreading in the mucous membrane, such as influenza, norovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, as well as coronaviruses SARS, MERS and the one that recently appeared in China," says Vater Latour, head of Vaxart.
It takes about five more years for flu pills to appear on pharmacy shelves. In addition, scientists have tested only one strain of influenza. The majority of vaccines that doctors distribute annually to the population include three or four of the most dangerous strains.
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