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Clover Biopharmaceuticals said that a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine showed neutralizing antibody levels against Omicron variants in a trial.
Clover noted that it created its COVID-19 vaccine candidate by combining SCB-2019 with Dynavax Technologies (NASDAQ:DVAX) CpG 1018 advanced adjuvant and aluminum hydroxide.
China-based Clover said in a June 27 release that SCB-2019 as a booster dose — six months after a two-dose primary vaccination with SCB-2019 — showed a a significant, 19-fold increase in neutralizing antibody levels against Omicron BA.2 variant, compared to pre-booster levels, among baseline seronegative people.
The booster shot also showed a 12-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron BA.1 variant compared to pre-booster levels.
Earlier in June, Moderna (MRNA) had reported that its booster vaccine candidate mRNA-1273.214 showed potent neutralizing antibody responses against Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.
"This highly encouraging homologous booster data against Omicron represents a key milestone on Clover’s path to developing SCB-2019 for primary vaccination and as a universal COVID-19 booster vaccine to protect individuals in need, regardless of previous vaccination technology or infection history," said Joshua Liang, CEO and executive director, Clover.
Nicholas Jackson, president of Global Research and Development of Clover, said that as part of the company's universal booster development for SCB-2019, Clover will report data of SCB-2019 as a heterologous 3rd booster dose against homologous 3rd booster doses of Sinovac Biotech's (SVA) CoronaVac and Pfizer (PFE)/BioNTech's (BNTX) Comirnaty in Q3 2022.
Clover noted that it remains focused on completing regulatory filings in China, EU and to the WHO for SCB-2019 in H2 2022, while concurrently preparing for global commercialization.