The Serum Institute of India has begun manufacturing a coronavirus vaccine it developed in partnership with Farmingdale-based Codagenix, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company.
The vaccine, which uses live COVID-19, known as live-attenuated vaccine, is called CDX-005. Now that preclinical animal studies have been completed, and Codagenix
expects to initiate a Phase 1 first-in-human clinical trial in the United Kingdom by the end of this year.
“Today marks an important step in our efforts to advance the development of CDX-005,” Codagenix CEO J. Robert Coleman, Ph.D, said.
Russia recently approved the world’s first vaccine for the novel coronavirus, with doctors among those set to be administered with it on a voluntary basis. But a majority of Russian doctors would not feel comfortable being injected with Russia’s new COVID-19 vaccine due to the lack of sufficient data about it and its super-fast approval, a survey of more than 3,000 medical professionals showed.
Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday kicked off a final 60,000-person trial of a single-shot COVID-19 vaccine that potentially would simplify distribution of millions of doses compared with leading rivals using two doses. Rival vaccines from Moderna Inc, Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca all require two shots separated by several weeks, which make them much more difficult to administer.
“CDX-005 is delivered intranasally rather than via an injection, which allows for more efficient, patient-friendly administration,” Coleman said.
As of Tuesday, there were 92,596 coronavirus cases on Long Island — 46,208 in Suffolk County, 46,388 in Nassau — 451,892 across New York State, 6.9 million in the U.S., and 31 million globally. As for fatal COVID-19 cases, there were 4,213 on LI — 2,201 in Nassau, 2,012 in Suffolk — 25,437 statewide, 201,120 nationwide, and 972,372 worldwide.
-With Reuters
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