Ottawa approves Medicago vaccine

Health Canada authorizes the vaccine from the Quebec pharmaceutical company Medicago against COVID-19.

Known as “Covifenz”, the two-dose, plant-based vaccine is licensed for use in people aged 18 to 64. Health Canada states that its efficacy and safety in people under 18 and over 64 “have not yet been determined”.

Clinical trials suggest that Medicago’s vaccine is 71% effective against symptomatic infection and 100% effective against severe forms of COVID-19 one week after the second dose. The second dose is given 21 days after the first.

Medicago, a biotechnology company based in Quebec, and its partner GlaxoSmithKline had submitted their phase 3 data to Health Canada last December.

The company released Dec. 7, in a late-stage study, data suggesting that its candidate vaccine, when boosted with the booster dose of GlaxoSmithKline, was 75.3% effective against the Delta variant.

Medicago’s vaccine uses technology that does not involve animal products or live viruses, as vaccine manufacturers usually do.

Medicago instead uses “recombinant” technology, which involves the genetic sequence of a virus, with living plants as the host. The resulting “virus-like” particles mimic the shape and size of the virus, allowing the human body to recognize them and trigger the desired immune response through vaccination.

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