Xanadu Licences Intranasal Vaccine Booster To Stop Virus

Xanadu Bio, in association with Yale University, has come up with a nanoparticle delivery platform that will help to position itself to give its expertise in the COVID-19 booster vaccines that may prove to be more efficient in stopping the viral infection than the existing or previous products.

Significantly, the first-generation COVID-19 vaccines are very highly effective when it comes to preventing severe disease as well as death, but all said and done, they have proven to be less efficient as far as halting SARS-CoV-2 at a time when coronavirus variants such as Omicron have been very prevalent. Xanadu, which is headed by ex-Roche VP Bruce Turner, is focusing on coming up with a nasal vaccine that will make sure that the virus gets stopped in its tracks.

In a statement, Turner said that Xanadu believes in combining the base technologies developed by the Yale professors, which will further help in introducing the intranasal boosters to thwart SARS-CoV-2. This can be done by killing the virus in the nasosinus itself before it spreads across the deeper parts of the respiratory tract that endanger the patient’s life to a significant extent. By way of killing the virus in the nose itself, transmission amongst the community can be prevented by a great deal.

It is the lipid nanoparticles-LNP that help in delivering mRNA through the intramuscular route. However, research suggests that it may be unsuitable for nasal delivery. In one of the studies, giving LNP via the nasal route to mice led to inflammation and death. The researchers from Yale, however, have designed the PACE materials, which are licenced by Xanadu, that are relatively more silent immunologically and hence can be administered through the respiratory tract.

It was late last month when the researchers got to witness certain early evidence that suggested that the objective may have been achieved. Yale scientists published their findings on the effect mRNA had when it was encapsulated along with PACE polymers and given to mice.

Xanadu has now taken ownership of advancing its candidates based on this very technology. The biotech company has exclusively taken the rights of PACE and also explored as well as executed options with Yale as far as the nasal delivery of spike mRNA/PACE and other recombinant proteins are concerned.