Keynote Presentation: Development of an Affordable COVID-19 Vaccine Based on a Newcastle Disease Virus Platform

Highly efficacious vaccines against COVD-19 have been generated in a record time, and allowed a great impact in preventing severe disease due to SARS-CoV-2 infection in vaccinated individuals. Unfortunately, the pace in vaccination in developing countries continues to be very slow, mainly due to the lack of vaccine supply. The development of affordable COVID-19 vaccines that can be produced locally to satisfy the needs of developing countries is highly desirable to speed up the world COVID-19 vaccination. We have generated a  COVID-19 vaccine based on a Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vector expressing a stabilized form of the spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2.  This vaccine can be manufactured using the same technology in palce for the generation of the annual inactivated influenza virus vaccines,. The NDV-S  vaccine provides high level of protection against SARS-CoV-2 challenge in multiple animal models. Phase 1 clinical trial are being conducted in multiple countries to determine the safety profile and immunogenicity of this novel COVID-19 vaccine.

Learning Objectives:

1. To understand viral vector vaccines.

2. To gain knowledge on Newcastle disease virus-based vaccine vectors.

3. To gain knowledge on vaccine development steps

4. To understand the current limitations of COVID-19 vaccines.