Israeli Coronavirus Vaccine in ‘Final Stages’ of Development, Report Says

An Israeli vaccine for the coronavirus is currently in the “final stages” of development, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Dr. Chen Katz, who heads the group of scientists at The Galilee Research Institute (MIGAL) developing the vaccine, told the Post on April 1 that “within a few days,” the institute will be obtaining the proteins for the vaccine that are the “active component of the vaccine.” Researchers already have started testing the vaccine on mice and could start human testing on June 1.

“The quality of this kind of vaccine should be closer to food regulations than pharma regulations or somewhere in between,” Katz said, pointing out that this is because it’s an oral vaccine. “We hope that we will not need to go through the complete purification process like in the drug industry, because that could delay us.”

It was reported in February that MIGAL’s vaccine could be ready in 8-10 weeks and then seek approval in 90 days; Katz told the Post that the vaccine suffered a mild setback “because it took longer than expected to receive the genetic construct that they ordered from China due to the airways being closed.”

On March 31, Reuters reported that the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) had started testing a prototype of its COVID-19 vaccine on rodents.

The Post also reported on April 1 that Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s emergency service, has started developing a passive vaccine — which consists of antibodies against the virus from recovered patients — to treat the virus. Israel’s first patient who recovered from the virus donated blood to MDA on April 1 to be used for the passive vaccine; the MDA expects more blood donations from recovered COVID-19 patients after Passover.