The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Friday that it will provide $500 million in grants to support the development of future COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
The funds were awarded by the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) as part of the federal government’s NextGen Project, which aims to improve preparedness against future variants of COVID-19. HHS awarded $1.4 billion in grants under the same program earlier this year.
The recipients included the developers of two intranasal vaccine candidates: CastleVax and Codagenix. They received $8.5 million and $10 million, respectively.
Intranasal vaccines are rare but not unheard of. In the United States, the flu vaccine spray called FluMist is approved for people ages 2 to 49.
Joanna Kaufman, executive vice president for oncology and immunology at Codagenix, recently spoke about the available data on her company’s intranasal vaccine candidate, CoviLiv, in a discussion with the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Unlike the more common COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, Codagenix’s intranasal candidate is more traditional in that it uses a modified, weakened version of the virus to induce an immune response.
“CoviLiv can induce a robust systemic immune response following intranasal administration of this live attenuated biovaccine,” Kaufman said, adding that his company’s vaccine induced a response that targeted not only spike proteins – as vaccines do. to mRNA – but also other viral proteins. which mutates less.
ASPR Deputy Secretary Dawn O’Connell called the grants “important steps forward” for the Biden administration.
“The vaccine selections and funding announced today are important advances for the NextGen project, with vaccine and therapeutic candidates rapidly moving into clinical trials that will begin in the coming months,” O’Connell said in a statement.
“The technologies that [HHS] we are investing in, intranasal self-amplifying mRNA vaccines, will strengthen our protection against COVID-19 for years to come,” she added.
A self-enhancing mRNA vaccine candidate developed by Gritstone Bio also received $10 million.
According to the company, its self-amplifying mRNA vaccine differs from a normal mRNA vaccine by creating multiple copies of a virus’s RNA, as opposed to just one copy. This difference potentially allows for high potency at significantly lower doses and better refrigerator stability.
HHS also awarded $240 million in grants to companies developing new viral testing and sampling technologies, as well as an additional $241 million to companies developing new treatments like monoclonal antibodies.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to protecting people from COVID-19,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“By investing in next-generation vaccines and treatments through the NextGen project, we can improve our ability to respond to new variants, reduce transmission, stop infections and save lives,” he added.
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