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The Osaka-based Japanese biotech AnGes Inc. expects its potential COVID-19 vaccine to be ready as early as the first half of 2021 if it can overcome supply chain and production hurdles. Company is repurposing its hypertension vaccine that had already passed through high safety and regulatory standards and other hurdles.
The AnGes candidate is a plasmid DNA vaccine that disables the connection between the protein spikes of the coronavirus and receptors in human cells. Early results from tests in mice show increased antibody production, and tests in 30 human volunteers are due to begin in July, with first results expected in September.
Ryuichi Morishita, the founder of the company said that the Health Ministry and Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency is in support of the study.
Shionogi & Co. and Daiichi Sankyo Co. have taken the production responsibility of AnGes’s candidate coronavirus vaccine.
