The company Novavax has developed a new vaccine called the Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccine is supposed to increase the rate at which infants develop cavities. According to the World Health Organization, more than sixteen million children in the United States suffer from this condition. The rates are particularly high in the fifteen to twenty-five-year-old age group. This vaccine has been around for several years in Europe and is not very different than most other vaccines. In the United States, the rates tend to be higher and there is less of a research and development program.
Novavax has filed two major patents in Europe and one in the United States for the vaccine candidate. The first one was filed in 2021. A beta variant of the vaccine was later filed in 2021. All of these are part of the larger Covid-CSF Phase 3 project.
Novavax claims that its newer vaccine products are effective because they contain two types of live vaccines and one type of lecithin. Live vaccines include mumps, rabies, distemper and poliovirus. Lecithin is added to protect the egg and sperm from being affected by lecithin. These vaccines are used in combination to give protection to children against whooping cough and meningitis.
One problem with the vaccine is that in order for it to be effective, it must be received between two doses. The first dose must be given between two weeks and six months before delivery. Delivery between two doses is important because mumps only need to be present for one week or less for the vaccine to be effective. The second dose needs to be given between four weeks and nine months after conception. It must be noted that if the mother receives a vaccination before conception, there is a greater risk that the fetus will have a birth defect or suffer from a post-natal disorder.
There are two major components of the vaccine. The first is a live adenovirus vaccine or VAV vaccine. This component has been in development since late 2021 and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in June 2021. The second is a combination of proteins, enzymes and cell-culturing technologies which are known as the protein component and are also in development.
The protein component of the vaccine contains a novel combination of adeno-attendant virus encoding proteins and non-bacterial adaptors which are known as therixoviruses. Therixoviruses are one of the most common strains of the virus which can infect humans. The adaptors are strains of the mumps virus and are encoded by non-bacterial genetic sequences. Novavax aims to produce protection from the mumps component of the virus by using the engineered protein spike protein. It is hoped that this will confer the intended benefits against circulating mumps in newborns. There are currently in phase 3 clinical trials underway to test whether the vaccine will indeed provide protection from the disease in infected infants.
The protein component of the vaccine is produced in bioreactors, which are semi-automated machines. In the manufacturing process, cells from an adult donor are grown in culture dishes and then infected with adenoviruses. After several days, the cells reproduce to form spores. These spores are released into the air. The aerosols are then released into areas where people would be exposed to the risk of an infected individual.
This is the technology behind the successful manufacture of the VAV vaccine. The next phase of clinical testing is currently being done and will hopefully reveal conclusive proof of efficacy and safety. Other countries are now planning to use this area vaccine for their inhabitants but until all of the safety data is in and no adverse events are reported, it will remain a reserve for countries that face endemic infectious diseases.
