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Summary
- Providence Therapeutics Holdings Inc announced on Tuesday that it has begun clinical trials for the first made-in-Canada vaccine against the COVID-19 virus.
- The PTX-COVID19-B shot’s clinical study will be conducted in Toronto to test its immunogenicity and safety levels for human use.
- The Phase 1 trial will see 15 volunteers receive a placebo while 45 others get the real vaccine.
Canadian company Providence Therapeutics Holdings Inc announced on Tuesday, January 26, that it has begun the human clinical trials for the first made-in-Canada vaccine against the COVID-19 virus. The biotechnology firm said that it will administer three shots to 60 adult volunteers in the first phase of the trial starting Tuesday.
Providence Therapeutics said in an official statement that PTX-COVID19-B, a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, is the first completely made-in-Canada COVID-19 vaccine to achieve this stage of development.
A clinical stage company based in Toronto and Calgary, Providence Therapeutics is one of the top mRNA vaccine companies in Canada. While its focus majorly lies in cancer treatments, Providence expanded its research amid the coronavirus pandemic to work on an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19.
Key Highlights of Providence Therapeutics’ Phase 1 COVID-19 Shot Trial
Providence Therapeutics reported that the pre-clinical studies of PTX-COVID19-B showed “robust antibody responses” against the COVID-19’s spike protein, which were “highly effective” at counteracting the virus in multiple tests.
The Phase 1 trial will see 15 volunteers receive a placebo while 45 others get the real vaccine.
©Kalkine Group 2020
The volunteers will be monitored for a period of 13 months since the beginning of the Phase 1 trial, although the company said that it will have sufficient data by April to graduate to Phase 2 trials in May this year if regulatory bodies give a greenlight.
The PTX-COVID19-B shot’s clinical study will be conducted in Toronto to test its immunogenicity and safety levels for human use.
Based on the positive results from the clinical studies, commercialization of the Providence COVID-19 shot is projected to begin by the end of this year or early 2022.
The company said that the Canadian government is providing funds and advice for its COVID vaccine’s Phase 1 clinical trial via the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP).
Another Canadian company, Quebec-based Medicago Inc, also began clinical trials for its coronavirus vaccine based on plant-based technologies in July last year. However, unlike Providence Therapeutics, a large portion of Medicago's CVOID-19 shots are scheduled to be manufactured outside Canada, in North Carolina.
