It sounds like science fiction, and yet: the American biotechnology company Novavax is working on a vaccine that would protect against both the flu and Covid-19.
Novavax has already developed a flu vaccine (called NanoFlu); the American company has also developed a treatment against Covid-19 (called NVX-CoV2373); Although these two drugs have not yet received official authorization to be marketed, they have been studied separately in the context of phase 3 clinical trials – that is to say: on human volunteers.
The researchers took the decision to mix the two substances to make a single vaccine, hoping for protection against the flu and against Covid-19: this “combined vaccine” was administered to hamsters and ferrets. Good news: Novavax’s strategy seems to be working since the vaccine “elicited strong responses against both influenza A and B and protection against Sars-CoV-2“.
A combined flu + Covid-19 vaccine that seems effective in rodents
In detail: in ferrets, after the injection of this “combined vaccine”, the blood levels of antibodies against influenza and against Covid-19 were comparable to those obtained by the administration of the two substances individually. The hamsters, meanwhile, were exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus after receiving the injection: “a viral load test in [leurs] upper and lower respiratory tract showed that little or no virus was detected four days after infection” note the experts at Novavax.
Next step ? A test on man “by the end of the year“.”We believe that this new vaccine candidate resulting from a combination […] could be an important future tool in the long-term fight against these two respiratory viruses“says Novavax.
Combination vaccine technology is not new: thus, the DTP vaccine (which is compulsory, with two injections at 2 months and 4 months, and a booster at 11 months) protects against 3 diseases at the same time – diphtheria, tetanus and poliomyelitis. We can also mention the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella). As effective as several separate vaccinations, these vaccines make it possible in particular to limit the number of injections.
Read also :
- 2021 vaccination calendar: what to remember
- Vaccination delay: how is the catch-up done?
- Covid-19: Which vaccine for those over 55, 60, 70…?
