A coronavirus vaccine that’s taken by tablet instead of injection is about to go into human trials, a scientist has revealed.
Dr Sean Tucker, chief scientific officer at Vaxart, has revealed that his company is trialling several vaccine tablets, which could be trailed in humans as early as July.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Dr Tucker said: “My hope is that us and others will be able to have very large vats of [vaccine] material, millions and millions of doses by the end of the year, early next year.
“I mean, to me that doesn't seem unreasonable given the amount of money the US Government and others have provided.
"We hope that a vaccine solution will allow things to open up and for people to be going out and about again.”
According to Dr Tucker, Vaxart currently has several coronavirus vaccines in development.
He explained: “We essentially build in DNA that encodes proteins of Covid-19. If you put it in the intestine in the right context, you get a really strong immune response to those proteins.
“Because we're delivering it to a wet surface – the mucosa of the intestine – you get a great immune response throughout the blood but you also get antibodies and T cells at sites of the infection in the lungs.
“That's the way our vaccine works – it's designed to mount an immune response on wet surfaces such as the respiratory tract, which Covid-19 infects.”
The vaccines are currently being tested in mice, but could be tested in humans in a matter of months.
Dr Tucker added: “We've been trying to understand all of the different [candidate vaccines] we have going forward and working out which one works best.
“Everything so far is looking good at early time points. I think the data suggests we're going to have a really nice solution.”
