The Novo Nordisk Foundation in December committed $260 million to create new vaccines for deadly respiratory diseases in partnership with the University of Copenhagen. The new Novo Nordisk Foundation Initiative for Vaccines and Immunity will focus on mucosal vaccines that generate an immune response in the airways themselves, at the site of infection. “[This strategy] is a relatively unexplored area of research with astounding potential,” noted vaccine specialist Peter Lawætz Andersen of the Novo Nordisk Foundation in a press release. Unlike systemic vaccines, after which recipients can still become infected and pass the infection to others, mucosal vaccines have the potential to block infection and prevent airborne transmission.
Mucosal vaccine technology lags behind that used to produce systemic vaccines. Approved mucosal vaccines such as those for cholera, salmonella, poliovirus, rotavirus, and influenza, rely on live, attenuated or whole-cell inactivated bacteria and viruses. Nevertheless, the field is advancing — for example, viral vector-based approaches have reached clinical trials for COVID-19. The Danish initiative will build on the momentum generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, investigating RNA-, protein- and viral vector-based vaccine platforms, and test several platforms in head-to-head studies. Further research will identify additional antigens using genome-wide strategies. Vaccine candidates identified by the initiative and its partners, such as Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut, will be passed to a newly developed company, the Novo Nordisk Foundation Vaccine Accelerator. The Accelerator will develop vaccine formulations and co-ordinate external clinical manufacture and clinical testing up to phase 2 trials.
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