Jinwon Life Sciences COVID-19 Vaccine Prevents Variant Virus Infection in Hamsters

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] GeneOne Life Science announced on the 12th that in a hamster challenge infection model, the COVID-19 DNA vaccine (GLS-5310) administered intradermally using Gene-Derm, a simple inhalation pressure vaccination device developed in-house, prevented lung infection caused not only by the wild-type COVID-19 virus discovered in Wuhan but also by the Beta variant virus, which reduces the efficacy of existing vaccines.

Dr. Ka Mutumani, Chief Scientific Officer of GeneOne Life Science, stated, “As far as we know, this research result is the first among clinical development vaccines to demonstrate infection prevention against the Beta variant virus through experimental animals.”

Youngkeun Park, CEO of GeneOne Life Science, emphasized, “The complete prevention of viral infection by GLS-5310 in the hamster challenge infection model serves as an opportunity to reaffirm the potential value of our company’s COVID-19 vaccine development program and the simple and easy vaccination device we are developing.”

The company said, “It has already been confirmed through preclinical animal experiments and interim results of Phase 1 clinical trials that vaccination with GLS-5310 induces high levels of antibody and T-cell immune responses. While currently authorized vaccines for emergency use have focused only on the spike antigen, GLS-5310 adds the ORF3a antigen to the spike antigen, allowing the spike antigen to block the virus’s cell entry and the ORF3a antigen to suppress viral infection and disease onset.” They continued, “As a result, antibody immune responses and T-cell immune responses against the COVID-19 virus are enhanced.”