Cash injection for scientists developing variant-proof Covid vaccines

• Scientists fear vaccines will offer little protection against new diseases 
• It is feared the lack of protection could leave the wold back to square one
• Universities in Canada have been developing new vaccines to stop this issue 

Millions of pounds are being ploughed into developing variant-proof Covid vaccines that could be as effective against future strains as those circulating now.

Scientists fear that current jabs could offer little protection against new versions of the Sars-Cov-2 virus – putting the world back to square one.

The international Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, to which the UK has contributed £260 million, is backing two projects. Israeli firm MigVax has been given £3.2 million to advance a vaccine pill known as MigVax-101, which would work as an easy-to-administer booster, and the University of Saskatchewan in Canada has been given £3.7 million to develop its own version.

Both are ‘subunit’ vaccines that introduce chunky fragments of the virus into the body. These fragments cannot infect cells, but teach the immune system how to recognise the whole virus. Because they show the body larger parts of the virus than today’s vaccines, they are thought to be better at protecting against multiple variants. 

Millions of pounds are being ploughed into developing variant-proof Covid vaccines that could be as effective against future strains as those circulating now

Source: Read Full Article