High-Dose Investigational COVID-19 Vaccine May Eliminate Boosters

Pennsylvania-based NRx Pharmaceuticals (NRx) announced today reports in the Israeli media that 230 participants in the BriLife vaccine trial who received the highest dose vaccine were notified by local health authorities they did not need a third booster dose of the vaccine as their protection remained high, six months after getting a second dose.

However, study participants who received lower doses of the BriLife vaccine, which the Israel Institute for Biological Research developed, have been advised to get a booster vaccination with either Comirnaty or SpikeVax vaccines, as those lower dosages do not appear to offer sufficient long-term protection.

"These reports, based on medical determinations made at local level suggest the potential performance of the BriLife vaccine at a time when ICUs around the world are racing to capacity," said Prof Jonathan Javitt, M.D., MPH, CEO and Chairman of NRx, in the related press statement.

"With this new information and more expected in the coming weeks, we are preparing to submit a phase 2b/3 protocol for BriLife against an established active comparator." 

The BriLife vaccine differs from other COVID-19 vaccines by presenting the entire COVID-19 spike protein to the body's immune system.

It also differs from other COVID-19 vaccine approaches. It is a self-propagating, live-virus vaccine in which the spike protein of the vaccine appears to evolve in a manner consistent with the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in nature.

Thus, while variants may arise that support manual enrichment of the vaccine against those specific variants, the vaccine itself may continue to evolve in a manner that provides ongoing protection against variants.

Trial surveillance continues, and this guidance may change in the future, stated NRx's press release.

Located in Radnor, PA, NRx is a clinical-stage, small molecule pharmaceutical company which develops novel therapeutics for the treatment of central nervous system disorders and life-threatening pulmonary diseases.