Netherlands Partnership to Develop an Intranasal COVID-19 Vaccine

In the Netherlands, Intravacc, a research and development vaccine institute, is partnering with Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) and Dutch Utrecht University to develop an intranasal vaccine against COVID-19.

The target vaccine will be made up of a Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vector that expresses the immunogenic spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which is a target for neutralizing antibodies. Its developers decided upon a nasal vaccination, which will provoke both mucosal and systemic immunity, while offering protection against additional infections at other mucosal sites (e.g., , in the lungs, intestines, and genital tract).

Intravacc will use its FDA-approved Vero cell platform to develop the vaccine and ready it for cGMP production, according to a company press release.

“Intravacc’s strength is its ability to bridge the gap between academia and research centers towards pharma,” said Intravacc’s CEO Dr. Jan Groen, in the press release. The Vero cell platform is already widely used to produce polio vaccines, Groen says, which should enable the partners to fast-track production of pilot lots of the vaccine, and then transfer the technology to large vaccine manufactures.

Source: Intravacc