MERS Vaccine Candidate Found Safe and Effective

UK-based Vaccitech plc today announced the publication in The Lancet Microbe of the first Phase 1 clinical trial conducted in the Middle East, evaluating the safety and tolerability of the ChAdOx1 MERS vaccine candidate.

The ChAdOx1 MERS vaccine candidate was generally well tolerated and induced both humoral and cellular immune responses, which continued through the six-month follow-up period.

The Phase 1 trial is part of a collaboration between the University of Oxford's Jenner Institute and the King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC). It is the first vaccine clinical trial to be conducted within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Vaccitech retains commercial rights to the vaccine.

"The high fatality rate of diagnosed MERS-CoV makes it one of the most dangerous coronaviruses communicable between humans," says Naif Alharbi, KAIMRC, DPhil, vaccinologist, and co-principal investigator on the MERS vaccine trial, in a press release issued on November 4, 2021.

"Research into robust preventative measures for a virus with pandemic potential is a global health imperative."

"The completion of our trial is the latest achievement for KAIMRC's world-leading MERS research and supports advancing the ChAdOx1 MERS vaccine candidate into its next phase of development."

"This multi-partner experience has also set the stage for more MERS vaccine clinical development in KSA, improving both research and regulatory expertise."

The study builds on the first Phase 1 clinical trial of ChAdOx1 MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) conducted in the United Kingdom and published in Lancet ID in April 2020.

First identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia, MERS is a zoonotic viral respiratory illness caused by the highly pathogenic MERS coronavirus. The source of the viral virus remains unknown, says the U.S. CDC.

More than 2,500 cases of MERS were reported globally to the World Health Organization (WHO), including 886 deaths. The MERS case fatality rate (34%) is more significant than COVID-19, another betacoronavirus-related disease.

Scientific evidence suggests that people can be infected through direct or indirect contact with infected dromedary camels.

However, South Korea's MERS outbreak in 2015 stemmed from a single Korean man who carried the coronavirus home after a trip to the Middle East.

The WHO lists MERS-CoV as a priority pathogen for vaccine development due to its threat to global health security.

Vaccitech is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company located in Oxford, England, engaged in discovering and developing novel immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases and cancer.