While pharma companies focus on developing variant-specific boosters, Japan is working on a vaccine that could offer lifelong immunity.
Summary
- Researchers at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science are working on a COVID-19 vaccine that not only delivers lifelong immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus but could also be transported at room temperature to far-off corners of the world, The Japan Times reported.
- The vaccine that is being developed by Michinori Kohara and his team of researchers employs the most successful vaccine used in history, one against smallpox.
- Experiments conducted in mice showed that vaccinated mice maintained high antibody levels for over 20 months or their average lifetime, The Japan Times reported.
- The researchers have tested the vaccine against the four previously reported coronavirus variants of concern and found it to be effective.
- If all goes well, the vaccine may be commercially available from 2024, at the earliest, The Japan Times reported.