Israel-Produced COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Plans Booster Against Omicron Variant

Pennsylvania-based NRx Pharmaceuticals today confirmed new information regarding the BriLife™ investigational vaccine for COVID-19.

Last week, NRx met with experts from the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) to review data and research related to the ability of the BriLife vaccine to induce neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant.

Based on the preliminary findings, NRx is currently designing a phase 2b/3 study of the BriLife vaccine as a booster to protect against COVID-19 variants of concern, including the Omicron variant.

Patients in the late-stage study will be fully vaccinated with mRNA vaccines.

NRx stated it anticipates that the study will begin in the first quarter of 2021 in Israel and will be expanded in coordination with the health ministries of several countries.

Prof Jonathan Javitt, M.D., MPH, Chairman and CEO of NRx Pharmaceuticals, commented in a press statement issued on January 11, 2022, “We are working closely with the experts at the IIBR to design a study that we hope increases BriLife’s accelerated path to regulatory approval.”

In further news, the Israel Ministry of Health recently approved a study investigating the NanoPass MicronJet™ intradermal injection system for the BriLife vaccine.

The NanoPass system, invented in Israel, uses a patented microneedle system to deliver the vaccine into the skin with minimal discomfort.

This approach is especially promising for the BriLife vaccine because it binds to angiotensin-converting ACE2 receptors, which are present in significantly larger quantities in human skin cells than in muscle cells where traditional vaccines are injected.

In addition, early data with other vaccines suggests that intradermal delivery of BriLife may result in a more robust immune response at substantially lower vaccine dosing.

Furthermore, NRx continues technology transfer and scale-up activities to anticipate commercial-scale manufacture of Brilife by Q4 2022.

NRx Pharmaceuticals, located in Radnor, PA, is developing the BriLife™ Covid vaccine, developed by the Israel Institute for Biological Research, under an exclusive license from the Israel Ministry of Defense.