Canada approves first plant-based COVID-19 vaccine for adults

Canada approves Medicago's plant-based COVID-19 vaccine for adults Medicago's vaccine on Thursday became the world's first plant-based shot approved against COVID-19 after Health Canada cleared it for use in adults. Amruta Khandekar Reuters

Feb 24 (Reuters) -  ...

The two-dose vaccine, which uses an adjuvant from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) to boost immune response, is the sixth COVID-19 shot to receive regulatory clearance in the country.

The Quebec-based privately held company has an agreement to supply up to 76 million doses of the vaccine to the Canadian government. Medicago said on Thursday it was committed to fulfilling the order as soon as possible. ...

The home-grown vaccine, branded Covifenz, is based on a technology that uses plants in its development process to produce non-infectious particles that mimic the virus.

Medicago plans to test the shot as a booster dose and among children, D’Aoust said.

Its approval for people aged 18 to 64 years follows a late-stage study that showed the vaccine was 75.3% effective against the Delta variant of the virus.

The shot also showed an overall efficacy of 71% against all variants of the coronavirus except Omicron, which was not prevalent when the study was underway. ...