What’s up with new Covid vaccines?

Hey remember the not so good old days when I used to post about Covid all the time?  Me, too.  Obviously, that doesn’t happen so much these days, but I still find the scientific advances (or lack thereof) pretty interesting.  Nice post from Katelyn Jetelina on what progress is being made on future vaccines:

NextGen Category #1: Variant-proof vaccines

One NextGen solution is a universal coronavirus vaccine that would protect against not only SARS-CoV-2 but also other coronaviruses that might cause future animal outbreaks and pandemics. However, this is a long way away. 

We have made progress towards a pan-Covid-19 vaccine. This class of vaccines aims to be “variant-proof.” The idea is that these vaccines would induce an immune response that would make it impossible (or at least very difficult) for newer variants to escape antibodies, like Omicron did in 2021. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we would no longer need boosters or that these vaccines could stop transmission. Only time would tell us that. 

Around 20 variant-proof vaccines are in the early stages of this process (preclinical), but 5 have reached human trials…

NextGen Category #2: Mucosal Vaccines 

The next category is mucosal (i.e., nasal) vaccines. These induce antibodies in a person’s nose and throat—the major site of infection by SARS-CoV-2—so they attack the virus at the starting line. Theoretically, this would better prevent infection and transmission than current vaccines. As previously covered on YLE, this is a hard scientific road for multiple reasons. 

Twenty-seven clinical trials of mucosal vaccines have reached human trials, including a few in the U.S. A lot are still in the beginning stages, though.

 

Mucosal Covid-19 vaccines that have made it to clinical trials. Figure by YLE; Data from Hilda Bastian.

A few have reached later phases, and some have even been approved in other countries. However, they haven’t been authorized by a drug regulatory agency considered “stringent” for the WHO or the U.S. In the U.S., these manufacturers would have to submit their materials to the FDA and, after review, may have to run another clinical trial if they don’t have certain data. It’s not clear if this is happening (or not)…

Don’t forget about T cells! Some have developed vaccines to maximize our T cell responses by targeting other parts of the coronavirus (not the spike). These vaccines wouldn’t have much effect on transmission or infection, but they could be very valuable in preventing hospitalizations if/when we get another coronavirus pandemic. 

• Pfizer and BioNTech have reported preclinical data, which showed robust immune responses to non-spike targets.

• The big challenge with this approach is manufacturers would need an absolutely huge trial (given the outcome is hospitalizations). They could try to justify the vaccine based on the T cell responses, but we don’t know how to interpret those in terms of real-world outcomes. This will take some work.

Bottom line

We need better Covid-19 vaccines. Biomedical innovation, such as the licensure of mRNA vaccines, was a huge scientific win during the emergency, and thankfully, scientists are not stopping there. While these will not likely be available this year, we can cross our fingers and toes that better ones are on the horizon.