(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Thursday it will provide up to $500 million for mid-stage trials evaluating vaccines administered as a nasal spray or tablet to protect against symptomatic COVID-19 .
The funding is part of Project NextGen, a $5 billion initiative led by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), to advance a suite of new and innovative vaccines and therapeutics that provide broader and longer-lasting protection against Infection due to Covid-19.
BARDA, which helps companies develop medical supplies to address public health threats, is part of HHS.
The project is awarding up to $453 million to Vaxart for a study that will evaluate its oral COVID vaccine. The company’s shares more than doubled to $1.78 after market trading.
It is also giving private companies Castlevax and Cyanvac about $34 million and $40 million, respectively, to develop their intranasal vaccine candidates.
Each trial will involve 10,000 volunteers and compare the efficacy and safety of the experimental vaccines with FDA-licensed vaccines.
“Currently approved COVID-19 vaccines are administered intramuscularly and, although extremely effective, are limited in their ability to induce a robust immune response in mucosal areas such as the mouth, nose and intestine, where the SARS virus- CoV-2 enters the body for the first time. body,” HHS said.
(Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
