A Maryland pharmaceutical company is soliciting volunteers for Phase 1 clinical trials to test its nasal spray coronavirus vaccine.
Gaithersburg-based Altimmune seeks 180 volunteers to test AdCOVID, a spray designed to trigger a local immune response to the virus in the nose, mouth and lungs, WJLA-TV (Channel 7) reported.
With the coronavirus spreading through saliva and mucus droplets, company researchers want to show AdCOVID can not only prevent severe illness with mucosal immunity, but stop it from expanding.
“Stopping it in its tracks, at the site of initiation,” said Dr. Scot Roberts, chief scientific officer at Altimmune, WJLA reported. “A few virus particles go in from a sneeze, and they find a home inside your nose and then they start to grow. Then, that leads to disease. So, if you can stop that process early by having the right kind of immunity at that site, at that local site, you’ve got the best chance of avoiding all of those complications.”
Currently, three Food and Drug Administration-approved coronavirus vaccines — administered via syringe — are in usage. Two of them, developed by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, require two doses, while a Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires just one.