Israel-produced COVID-19 vaccine candidate plans booster against Omicron variant – Precision vaccinations
Pennsylvania-based NRx Pharmaceuticals today confirmed new information regarding the experimental BriLife ™ vaccine for COVID-19.
Last week, NRx met with experts from the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) to review data and research related to the ability of the BriLife vaccine to induce neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant.
Based on the preliminary results, NRx is currently designing a Phase 2b / 3 study of the BriLife vaccine as a booster to protect against variants of concern of COVID-19, including the Omicron variant.
Patients in the advanced study will be fully immunized with mRNA vaccines.
NRx said it expects the study to begin in the first quarter of 2021 in Israel and be extended in coordination with health ministries in several countries.
Professor Jonathan Javitt, MD, MPH, President and CEO of NRx Pharmaceuticals, commented in a press release issued on January 11, 2022: “We are working closely with the experts at IIBR to design a study which, we hopefully, increases BriLife’s accelerated path to regulatory approval. “
In addition, the Israeli Ministry of Health recently approved a study on the NanoPass MicronJet ™ intradermal injection system for the BriLife vaccine.
The NanoPass system, invented in Israel, uses a patented micro-needle system to deliver the vaccine into the skin with minimal discomfort.
This approach is particularly promising for the BriLife vaccine because it binds to angiotensin converting ACE2 receptors, which are present in significantly greater amounts in human skin cells than in muscle cells where traditional vaccines are injected.
Additionally, early data with other vaccines suggests that intradermal administration of BriLife may result in a more robust immune response at significantly lower vaccine doses.
In addition, NRx continues its technology transfer and scale-up activities to anticipate commercial scale manufacturing of Brilife by the fourth quarter of 2022.
NRx Pharmaceuticals, located in Radnor, PA, is developing the BriLife ™ Covid vaccine, developed by the Israel Institute for Biological Research, under an exclusive license from the Israeli Ministry of Defense.