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US News

Plant-based vaccine shows high efficacy against COVID

By
Jackie Salo
Published Dec. 7, 2021, 5:06 p.m. ET
A Medicago scientist working in a lab at the company's headquarters in Quebec City. Medicago's plant-based COVID-19 vaccine was found to be 75 percent effective.
A Medicago scientist working in a lab at the company's headquarters in Quebec City. Medicago's plant-based COVID-19 vaccine was found to be 75 percent effective. Courtesy of Medicago via AP

The world’s first plant-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate has proven to be more than 75% effective against preventing the Delta variant of the virus, a Canadian drugmaker said Tuesday.

Medicago’s vaccine was 75.3% effective against the variant when enhanced with GlaxoSmithKline’s booster, according to a late-stage study from both companies.

“These are encouraging results given data were obtained in an environment with no ancestral virus circulating. The global COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to show new facets with the current dominance of the Delta variant, upcoming Omicron, and other variants likely to follow,” GSK Chief Global Health Officer Thomas Breuer said in a statement.

The vaccine employs a technology known as virus-like particles produced in plant cells, which mimic the structure of the coronavirus, but contain no genetic material from it.

The vaccine’s overall efficacy was 71% against all variants of the coronavirus, except Omicron, which was not known to be circulating yet when the study was underway.

A Medicago greenhouse in Candad. The company's vaccine was developed using plant cells.
A Medicago greenhouse in Candad. The company’s vaccine was developed using plant cells. Louise Leblanc/Courtesy of Medicago via AP

The trial involved over 24,000 participants ages 18 and over in Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil.

Medicago said it plans to seek regulatory approval for the plant-based COVID-19 vaccine from Health Canada.

With Post wires