OBI Pharma Inc (浩鼎生技) on Tuesday announced that its COVID-19 vaccine BCVax would enter phase 1 and 2 clinical trials in the second half of this year.
The results of animal experiments have shown that BCVax can produce high levels of antibody titers and has neutralizing effects against different variants of SARS-CoV-2, the company said.
While the company focuses primarily on cancer drugs, it has also been closely following currently available COVID-19 vaccines, OBI Pharma chairman Michael Chang (張念慈) said.
Photo: Chen Yung-chi, Taipei Times
Although the COVID-19 vaccine market seems to have turned into a “red ocean,” meaning cutthroat competition, OBI Pharma in July last year still proceeded with the research and development of a COVID-19 vaccine, Chang said.
The company has filed a provisional patent application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for its vaccine, and expects to submit applications for clinical trials with Taiwan’s Center for Drug Evaluation in July or August, he said.
A phase 1 clinical trial would take place in Taiwan in the second half of this year, while phase 2 trials would be conducted abroad, Chang said.
OBI Pharma would also seek partnerships to carry out phase 3 trials abroad involving more than 20,000 volunteers, Chang added.
The company said it initially planned to unveil its vaccine last month, but had to conduct animal tests focused on the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 after the variant spread around the world late last year
BCVax is a recombinant protein-based vaccine, OBI lead scientific officer Lai Ming-tain (賴明添) said, adding that OBI Pharma wanted to create a vaccine with minimal side effects and effective adjuvants that can induce stronger T-cell responses.
Yang Ming-chen (楊明臻), who is a project manager at the company, said the vaccine works against different COVID-19 variants, including Omicron, thanks to immune stimulating complexes, which contain several copies of an antigen.
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