BioVaxys Technology announced that it has filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") a provisional patent application for its haptenized viral antigen vaccine platform to elicit a broad cross reactive immune response against most or all sarbecoviruses, the family of Coronaviruses that includes SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.
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A recent study^1 published in the New England Journal of Medicine ("NEJM") evaluated human volunteers who had natural immunity to SARS-Cov-1 (a coronavirus similar to SARS-CoV-2 but with higher mortality), which broke out in 2003 and is often referred to as the first global pandemic of the 21st century, and who were immunized against SARS-CoV-2 with a widely used mRNA vaccine.
The result was surprising: the recipients had neutralizing antibody not only to SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, but also to eight other sarbecoviruses, including emerging zoonotic sarbecoviruses that may have future pandemic potential.
This cross-reactivity was due to similarities in the S-spike protein. Sarbecoviruses, such as SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, all bind to the ACE2 receptor, which makes them highly transmissible.
Biovaxys intends to leverage its haptenized viral protein vaccine platform to induce immunity against all or most sarbecoviruses by immunizing people who have convalesced from a documented Covid-19 infection, or received a full course of any Covid-19 vaccine recognized by the World Health Organization, with a novel vaccine composed of the dinitrophenyl ("DNP")-modified S-spike protein of SARS-CoV-1.
Dr. David Berd, Chief Medical Officer of BioVaxys, commented: "Scientists dream of a pan Coronavirus vaccine that would protect the population against any SARS like respiratory virus that might mutate and emerge from a wild animal in the future. Our approach could constitute a pan-sarbecovirus vaccine that would protect humans against a very dangerous subgroup of Coronavirus that could emerge from the wild and cause as much devastation as Covid-19."
For greater certainty, BioVaxys is not making any express or implied claims that it has the ability to treat the SAR-CoV-2 virus at this time. ■