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Israel to Become First in World to Test Oravax Oral Covid-19 Vaccine

Israel is about to become the first country in the world to test the oral COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oramed Pharmaceuticals, the company's CEO Nadav Kidron said.

Oramed’s subsidiary, Oravax Medical, is gearing up to commence clinical trials of its vaccine at Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv after receiving approval for its study protocol from the hospital’s Institutional Review Board. It is now waiting for approval from the Health Ministry, which is expected within a few weeks.

Oravax already completed GMP manufacturing in Europe of several thousand capsules that would be available for the Israeli trial and eventually in other countries.

Kidron said the new Oravax vaccine candidate targets three structural proteins of the novel coronavirus, as opposed to the single spike protein targeted by the current Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. As such, “this vaccine should be much more resistant to COVID-19 variants,” he said. “Even if the virus gets through one line, there is a second line, and if through the second line, there is a third.”

The vaccine is being tested in preclinical studies against COVID-19 variants, including the Delta one. (JPost/ VFI News)

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