RecipharmCobra’s ORT-VACT Delivery Shows Promise

RecipharmCobra Biologics, in collaboration with the Royal Holloway, University of London and the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Rome, Italy, has released the results of a study to develop an oral vaccine against tuberculosis.

The study showed that the orally delivered ORT-VAC DNA vaccine produced higher immune responses in mice than the injected DNA vaccine, resulting in a reduction of the TB bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the lungs of immunized mice. Previous studies in mice using ORT-VAC to deliver protein vaccines have protected against bubonic plague and anthrax.

RecipharmCobra’s ORT-VAC employs live Salmonella bacteria to deliver a TB vaccine orally. The Salmonella bacteria are modified so as not to cause disease. The vaccine is a DNA vaccine, where a gene from a disease-causing microorganism is used to stimulate an immune response.

Simon Saxby, vice resident of Biologics at RecipharmCobra, said, “Using an attenuated bacterium to deliver vaccines orally is a very exciting new area, and the delivery of DNA vaccines has been particularly challenging. The study illustrates the versatility of RecipharmCobra’s ORT-VAC technology to provide a delivery route for needle-free administration of a DNA vaccine. A vaccine based on ORT-VAC could be inexpensive to produce, simple to distribute and easy to administer, which is essential for tackling the disease in developing countries.