Russia to start testing edible coronavirus vaccine
The Institute of Experimental Medicine (IEM, St. Petersburg) plans to soon begin clinical trials of the world’s first edible vaccine against coronavirus infection, which tastes like a regular fermented milk product – as stated by the Head of the Molecular Microbiology Department and the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of Pathogenic Microorganisms of the IEM, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Suvorov, RIA Novosti reports
“To date, we have already created four variants of vaccine candidates... We hope very much that we will enter clinical trials in the near future,” he noted.
According to the Director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Dmitriev, the relevant research has been carried out at the institute since the beginning of 2020. He believes that an edible coronavirus vaccine boasts several competitive advantages, one of which is that this drug is just a matter of drinking. Moreover, the production of such a vaccine does not require the use of special purification technologies and serious financial costs for organising the mass production of the drug.
“It’s very inexpensive and can be easily scaled up... Any (dairy) plant with a few (technological) changes can start producing this product,” he said.
“The most important thing is that this platform can be easily and quickly adapted to any pathogens that have not even entered the human population yet,” the expert concluded.
Globally, there have been more than 494.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including at least 6.1 deaths. More than 429.9 million people who had previously received positive tests for coronavirus were cured.
