Serum Institute of India starts manufacturing Codagenix's nasal COVID-19 vaccine

Codagenix earlier joined hands with the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker by number of doses produced, to develop CDX-005. "Today marks an important step in our efforts to advance the development of CDX-005," said J. Robert Coleman, Ph.D., CEO of Codagenix.

The pre-clinical study has showed promising results, the biotech company claimed. "Pre-clinical testing of a single, intranasal dose of CDX-005 in animals has yielded encouraging safety and efficacy signals," the company said in a statement."With Serum Institute's financial and technical support, we expect to rapidly propel the vaccine into the clinic before the end of 2020," Coleman added.

How Codagenix's COVID-19 vaccine works:

"CDX-005 was engineered using our proprietary codon deoptimization software platform, which allowed us to recode the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus by inserting hundreds of mutations. These mutations result in a live-attenuated vaccine that is non-pathogenic yet has the potential to stimulate a robust T cell and antibody immune response that mimics that of the wild-type virus," said Coleman.

Explaining how Codagenix's COVID-19 vaccine will work differently than the other vaccine candidate, Coleman said, "Our live-attenuated vaccine approach is in sharp contrast to many of the more common COVID-19 immunization strategies currently undergoing human testing, such as mRNA or virus-like-particle candidates, which only target the spike protein, or the adenovirus vectored approaches that could cause off-target effects."

"Moreover, CDX-005 is delivered intranasally rather than via an injection, which allows for more efficient, patient-friendly administration," he further mentioned.

Serum Institute received necessary regulatory approval from the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) of India's Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for manufacturing Codagenix's COVID-19 vaccine, the US based firm said in a statement.

Serum Institute will initiate manufacturing for large-scale safety and efficacy studies, in addition to preparing to meet global vaccine supply requirements, the pharma major said.

Glenn Rockman, managing partner at Adjuvant Capital, added: "The software-driven virus recoding approach used by Codagenix holds the potential to not only develop optimized, more affordable versions of existing vaccines, but also rapidly respond to future outbreaks."

Codagenix is a clinical-stage synthetic biology company that uses software to recode the genomes of viruses, constructing live-attenuated vaccines or viruses to prevent viral infections or treat solid tumors. Codagenix's vaccine programmes are backed by investors Adjuvant Capital and TopSpin Partners.