Israel Research Lab Develops Breakthrough In Coronavirus Vaccine

Israeli Breakthrough in Coronavirus Vaccine Imminent

Esti Eliraz

Israel Today spoke with a research lab in Kiryat Shmonah, Israel’s northern frontier town on the border with Lebanon, that is now poised to be the first to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus afflicting the globe.

After 4 years of research funded by Israel’s Ministry of Science & Technology, researchers at MIGAL have developed an effective vaccine against avian coronavirus Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV), which can be adapted soon to create a human vaccine against the coronavirus COVID-19.

“Our goal is to produce the vaccine during the next 8-10 weeks, and to achieve safety approval in a few weeks. This will be an oral vaccine, making it particularly accessible to the general public. We are currently in intensive discussions with potential partners that can help accelerate the trial phase and expedite the final product’s development and regulatory activities. Given the urgent global need for a human coronavirus vaccine, we are doing everything we can to accelerate development,” said David Zigdon, CEO of the Institute for Scientific Research in the Galilee (MIGAL).

This possibility was identified as a by-product of MIGAL’s development of a vaccine against Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV) or Avian coronavirus, a disease affecting poultry, whose effectiveness has been proven in pre-clinical trials carried out at the Veterinary Institute. MIGAL has now made required genetic adjustments to adapt the vaccine to COVID-19, the human strain of Coronavirus, and is working to achieve the safety approvals that will enable in-vivo testing, enable the initiation of production of a vaccine to counter the coronavirus epidemic currently spreading throughout the world, which so far has claimed 5,839 lives.

From research conducted at MIGAL, it has been found that the poultry coronavirus has high genetic similarity to the human COVID-19, and that it uses the same infection mechanism, a fact that increases the likelihood of achieving an effective human vaccine in a very short period of time.

According to Dr. Chen Katz, MIGAL’s Biotechnology Group Leader, “The scientific framework for the vaccine is based on a new protein expression vector… causing the body to form antibodies against the virus. In pre-clinical (IN-VIVO) trials, MIGAL’s researchers have demonstrated that the oral vaccination induces high levels of specific anti-IBV antibodies.”

Israel’s Minister of Science and Technology, Mr. Ofir Akunis commented on the development:

“Congratulations to MIGAL on this exciting breakthrough. I am confident that there will be further rapid progress, enabling us to provide a needed response to the grave global COVID-19 threat.” 

Minister Akunis has instructed the Director General of the Ministry of Science and Technology to fast-track all approval processes with the goal of bringing the human vaccine to market as quickly as possible.

The EU has provided a € 4.4 million ($4.5) grant to the MIGAL lab for a research group on environmental, health and environmental impact of the virus.