the made-in-canada vaccine with promising early results

many of us are feeling a bit more hopeful after pfizer announced a 90 per cent effectiveness rate amid phase 3 trials of its covid-19 vaccine. but there’s another reason to be cautiously optimistic that’s closer to home: medicago, a quebec-based company, says it’s seeing promising early results from its phase 1 clinical trial.

in a statement released tuesday, the drug maker said “the results of the trial demonstrated that 100 per cent of subjects developed a promising antibody response after two doses” of its vaccine candidate.

plant-derived

medicago is a biopharmaceutical company based out of quebec city. started in 1999, it focuses on plant-derived therapeutics (its name stems from the latin word for alfalfa). in 2013, it was acquired by mitsubishi tanabe pharma, though philip morris investments retained 40 per cent of shares.

in october, the federal government announced a deal to secure the rights to buy 76 million doses of its vaccine. the feds have also promised $173 million in funding for vaccine research and development and for the construction of its manufacturing facility.

head of the (canadian) pack

a number of other canadian-based companies are working on vaccine candidates including immunoprecise antibodies , imv and entos pharmaceuticals , as well as teams from schools such as the university of alberta and university of waterloo. however, medicago is the most advanced vaccine project in canada.

major international companies such as pfizer and astrazeneca are much further along in their covid-19 trials. still, dr. bruce d. clark, president and ceo of medicago, points out that their work will help “diversify the classes of covid-19 vaccines candidates in development.”

he told reuters, “even if you add the total number of doses that have been committed [by other companies], you are looking at a global population of seven billion and it will require different suppliers.”

the science so far

the company is using a lower-dose version of its vaccine, which does not involve animal products or live viruses like traditional methods, the canadian press reports . it’s combined with glaxosmithkline’s adjuvant — a compound that enhances the body’s immune response.

what next?

according to health canada, phase 2 usually involves 100 or more people. scientists gather data on how well the drug works on a wider range of people and figure out the best dose. typically, more than 1,000 people will be given a vaccine candidate in a phase 3 trial to look for side effects and to make sure it is still effective. clark has suggested phase 3 would involve older particiants and potentially involve 15,000 to 20,000 people around the globe.