AstraZeneca/Oxford nasal spray version of COVID vaccine faces setback in early trial
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A nasal spray version of AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) and Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine did not show the desired results in an early trial, according to the journal The Lancet,
In the phase 1 trial, 30 people who had not received a COVID vaccine previously were allocated to receive 5 Ã 109 viral particles (VP, n=6), 2 Ã 1010 VP (n=12) or 5 Ã 1010 VP (n=12). Fourteen received second intranasal doses 28 days later. Another 12 received non-study intramuscular mRNA COVID vaccine between study days 22 and 46, according to eBioMedicine, part of The Lancet.
To investigate intranasal ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 as a booster, six people who had previously received two intramuscular doses of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and six who had received two intramuscular doses of Pfizer/BioNTech's BNT162b2 were given a single intranasal dose of 5 Ã 1010 VP of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19.
The researches said the intranasal ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine showed an acceptable tolerability profile but induced neither a consistent mucosal antibody response nor a strong systemic response.
Antigen-specific mucosal antibody responses to intranasal vaccination were detectable in a minority of participants, rarely exceeding levels seen after COVID infection, the report added.
Systemic responses to intranasal vaccine were weaker than after intramuscular version of the vaccine.
Antigen-specific mucosal antibody was seen in people who received an intramuscular mRNA vaccine after intranasal vaccination. Seven people developed symptomatic COVID-19 infection.
The report noted that reactogenicity was mild or moderate.