HELSINKI, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The Finnish developers of a new type of nasal spray vaccine for COVID-19 have secured significant funding from public and private sources to enable them to continue their clinical trials, the University of Eastern Finland said in a press release on Wednesday.
The nasal spray vaccine is being developed by Rokote Laboratories Finland, which is owned jointly by the University of Eastern Finland and the University of Helsinki.
The financial solution now comprises a 5.5-million-euro (6.5 million U.S. dollars) loan from Business Finland, the Finnish government's economic development catalyst agency, and 3.5 million euros from two foundations and a Swiss pharmaceutical company.
According to the press release, the funding now secured will facilitate the completion of the first two phases of clinical trials of the vaccine.
The nasal spray vaccine being developed uses a safe adenovirus carrier that contains a cloned DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) strand of the novel coronavirus's S protein. This can be used to program nasopharyngeal cells to produce the surface protein of the virus which, in turn, produces a response to the vaccine. There are no other parts of the virus in the vaccine, explained Seppo Yla-Herttuala, a professor at the University of Eastern Finland.
The vaccine under development is easily modifiable and would thus be able to tackle the challenges posed by the new virus mutations, noted Kalle Saksela, professor of virology at Helsinki University. The genome of the novel coronavirus is expected to continue mutating rapidly, noted the press release.
"The nasal spray vaccine can serve as an easy-to-administer booster for those who have already received a traditional vaccine," Saksela said.
The vaccine is based on gene transfer technology developed by Yla-Herttuala's research team at the University of Eastern Finland. The technology has already been successfully employed in several clinical trials using gene therapy to treat cardiovascular diseases and cancer. At a later stage, the same method could also be used to develop vaccines for other viruses. (1 euro = 1.18 U.S. dollars) Enditem
