Israel's 2nd Generation COVID-19 Vaccine Prepares Late-Stage Study

Pennsylvania-based NRx Pharmaceuticals was advised today that the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board overseeing the phase 2 trial of the BriLife™ vaccine candidate has concluded its safety analysis, with a formal report expected in the coming days.

Based on the input received, NRx is proceeding with its plans to initiate a phase 2b/3 registration trial of BriLife.

The BriLife 002 phase 2b/3 trial is expected to commence in Israel and the Nation of Georgia, with European and North American countries to be added once the initial phase 2b volunteers have been vaccinated. 

In contrast to first-generation vaccines against COVID, BriLife is a viral vector vaccine that presents the entire spike protein complex of the coronavirus to the body’s immune system and is able to present multiple variants of the spike protein simultaneously.

Laboratory studies of antibody response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus variant Omicron are underway.

NRx believes this will potentially equip BriLife to create a more robust immune response than vaccines that present only a single variant of the spike protein or even a portion of a single variant to the immune system.

Unlike other vaccines, BriLife binds to the specific cells in the lung and nasal cavity targeted by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

This finding creates a potential for the vaccine to generate a level of tissue immunity that may prevent vaccinated individuals from contracting and spreading new variants of COVID, even if they do not personally contract the virus.

And the binding of BriLife to cells that line the respiratory tract similarly opens the possibility of delivering the vaccine as a nasal spray.

“We are excited to move forward with a multi-nation trial of BriLife at a time when the immunity that has been built through widespread adoption of first-generation vaccines is increasingly challenged by new variants,” said Prof. Jonathan Javitt, M.D., MPH, Chairman, and CEO of NRx Pharmaceuticals, in a press statement.

In July 2021, the Government of Israel awarded NRx the exclusive worldwide right to develop and market the BriLife vaccine developed by the Israel Institute for Biological Research.