An inhaled vaccine against Covid-19 started to be used in China as a booster dose. The first applications took place in the city of Shanghai this Wednesday (26), according to Cansino, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the immunizer. The company also said this is the first inhaled vaccine used against the disease.
The immunizer, called Convidecia Air, received authorization for emergency use in China in September this year. In addition to it, an injectable version of the same vaccine already existed with authorization from the Chinese regulatory agency since February 2021.
The pharmaceutical company said in a statement that a person will only have access to the vaccine in an inhaled format if they are over 18 years of age. The person interested in the immunizer also needs to have taken at least one dose of the injectable version or to have been immunized with two applications of an inactivated vaccine.
Both the inhaled and injected versions are based on the technology of an adenovirus genetically modified to be harmless and also to carry the genetic code of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Thus, the immune system has access to parts of the virus, which allows the development of the immune response and memory.
The WHO (World Health Organization) considers the Cansino injectable vaccine to be safe for use in adults. The entity also states that clinical studies have observed an effectiveness of 58% in reducing symptomatic cases of Covid-19 and 92% for severe cases.
The organization does not cite information about the inhalable version of the vaccine, but research has already been carried out on the immunizer. In the Lancet journal, a phase one clinical study with 130 participants was published. The researchers concluded that there were adverse events, but with good tolerance by the participants. In addition, two doses of the inhaled vaccine had a comparative effect with the injectable version.
Even so, it was not possible to conclude about the effectiveness of the immunizer because it was a small and phase one study. “The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of aerosol vaccination should be evaluated in future studies,” the authors wrote.
Another study was also published in the Lancet on the drug. This time, the purpose was to measure the effect that the immunizer, when inhaled orally, had as a booster in people who had already been vaccinated with two doses of Coronavac. The researchers observed good tolerance to the drug and its ability to generate immunogenicity even with previous doses of Coronavac.
Nasal vaccines against Covid-19 are the subject of investigations by other pharmaceutical companies and research centers. In Brazil, a laboratory at Incor (Instituto do Coração) at Hospital das Clínicas at USP is working on the development of a nasal vaccine that could induce a better immune response.
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