First results from animal tests are encouraging for a unique vaccine against influenza and Covid-19.
The American biotech company Novavax announced its positive tests on Monday.
Novavax's influenza vaccine (named NanoFlu), as well as its cure for Covid-19 (NVX-CoV2373), are not yet licensed globally, but have both been studied separately in phase 3 clinical trials. , that is to say on thousands of humans.
This time the company administered a vaccine containing both products to ferrets and hamsters.
This "has elicited strong responses against both influenza A and B and protection against SARS-CoV-2", the virus causing Covid-19 disease, the pharmaceutical company said.
In ferrets, antibody levels against the two diseases were comparable to those elicited by vaccines administered individually.
Hamsters that were deliberately exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus kept the same weight compared to those unvaccinated, and "an examination of the viral load in the upper and lower respiratory tract showed little or no , virus was detected four days after infection ”.
Tests on a few people by the end of 2021
Novavax plans to start testing on humans, initially in very small numbers, "by the end of the year," she said.
"We believe that this new candidate vaccine resulting from a combination […] could be an important future tool in the long-term fight against these two respiratory viruses", declared Gregory Glenn, in charge of research and development at Novavax .
This vaccine uses a different technology from that used for vaccines already widely authorized in the world.
It is a so-called “subunit” vaccine, based on proteins that trigger an immune response, without viruses.
In March, the company said its vaccine was 89.7% effective against symptomatic forms of the disease, according to clinical trials in the UK on more than 15,000 people aged 18 and over.
The Moderna laboratory and its French leader Stéphane Bancel also intend to develop an annual booster of the anti-Covid vaccine combined with that of the flu, he explained to TF1.