COVID Vaccine in Pill Form To Start Clinical Trials in Humans This Year

By Mary Anne Webber First Posted: Mar 23, 2021 02:52 AM EDT

A COVID vaccine may be taken orally in the near future after another pharmaceutical company announced that clinical trials for its vaccine in pill form could start this year.

Oravax said this step is only the earliest phase of developing a vaccine, adding that it could be a year or more before it is authorized for use once it works.

According to a Business Insider report, Oravax is a joint venture by two companies, namely Oramed, an Israeli-American firm, and Premas Biotech, an Indian firm.

In a press release issued on Friday, Oravax said the first phase of clinical trials in humans could start by June. Nadav Kidron, CEO of Oramed, said an oral vaccine could potentially allow people to take the vaccine themselves at home.

He added that the COVID vaccine could be stored at room temperature and shipped in a normal refrigerator. Thus, logistically speaking, it could reach people easier around the world with this feature.

"While ease of administration is critical today to accelerate inoculation rates, an oral vaccine could become even more valuable in the case that a COVID-19 vaccine may be recommended annually like the standard flu shot," Kidron said in the statement.

COVID Vaccine in a Pill Form

Oral COVID vaccines are being reviewed as a "second-generation" vaccine that can be made to be more scalable, easier to administer, and easier distribution, which are important factors when one is aiming for herd immunity, according to a Science Times report.

Oravax is not the only company eyeing this opportunity. ImmunityBio Inc. has already started clinical trials on its COVID vaccine in a form of pill or tablet.

The initial trials, together with iosBio, were being carried out on monkeys, and it reportedly produced highly effective results, Express reported.

British vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi said the government is looking at technologies with pills being developed around the world.

Zahawi added that they are making sure that the U.K. will always have the ability and capacity to manufacture the variant vaccines that would address any coronavirus variants.

Oravax earlier said that the firm's tablet-form vaccine had good results in a pilot study in animals. However, Prof. Paul Hunter, Professor in Medicine at the University of East Anglia, told Business Insider that it needs properly conducted studies to prove the oral vaccines' worth.

Although the results of the animal studies are promising, Hunter said that animal results do not always translate into human results.

"We need human studies to be sure," he noted. Oxford-AstraZeneca is also working on developing tablets and nasal-spray vaccines.

Second-Generation COVID Vaccine

One of the biggest pharmaceutical names, which recently acquired an emergency authorization use, said it is looking to create a second-generation COVID vaccine.

A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson said they are looking at the development of a second-generation vaccine and will share more information once it is available, Fox News reported.

This effort comes as the company is trying to work on boosting manufacturing power to increase its supply. The company said it would also continue to test the effectiveness of its vaccine against new and emerging COVID variants.

WATCH: Oravax Video March 2021 - From Oramed Pharmaceuticals