A project to deliver mRNA vaccines in oral form will not go ahead following an early-stage study in mice.

BioNTech, the German company that has successfully developed mRNA vaccines for Covid-19, has been looking for a way to deliver mRNA vaccines orally since last year, using a technology developed by Matinas Biopharma.

To test whether the vaccine worked in mice, Matinas used a formulation to ‘handle the complexity and frailty of mRNA’, but it said the approach did not show any activity in the animals, despite working in cell studies.

A recent PLOS article has looked at the progress of other intranasal and oral vaccines for Covid-19, highlighting their rapid development and authorisation in numerous ongoing clinical trials.

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