Farmscape for December 29, 2021

The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization expects its new COVID-19 vaccine to be used as a primary vaccine in nations in Africa and as an annual boost to already authorised vaccines in Canada.
A COVID 19 subunit vaccine, developed by the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Saskatoon in partnership with the Vaccine Formulation Institute in Switzerland and Seppic, is undergoing human clinical trials at sites in Canada and in Africa.
Dr. Volker Gerdts, the Director and CEO of VIDO, notes protein subunit vaccines are much easier to handle and transport than the newer technologies, they are more stable and don't require ultra low storage temperatures, they are cheaper to manufacture and most importantly this is the technology that has been used in humans for over 50 years with an excellent safety record.

Clip-Dr. Volker Gerdts-Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization:
What VIDO is looking for right now is two strategies.
The first one is to make this vaccine available to countries in Africa where people don't have access to vaccines.
As part of that we are running clinical trials in Africa to then one day make this vaccine, the whole technology, available to countries in Africa for local production in Africa.
At the same we're looking at further developing the vaccine for Canadians and so here the use will be, as you can imagine, as an annual boost for example, like the flu vaccine is right now.
For that reason, we're doing a clinical study earlier next year in which we are using our vaccine as a boost to already authorised vaccines.

Dr. Gerdts says we have not seen any significant adverse reaction in any of the volunteers who have participated in studies so far and more importantly the vaccine induces very good immune responses, comparable to those of other technologies, and this vaccine seems to be inducing very good responses to the Delta variant.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Wonderworks Canada Inc.