A Burnaby company is receiving advisory services and research and development funding of up to $4.57 million from a federal agency to help develop an orally administered COVID-19 vaccine.
Symvivo Corporation announced that the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) will help support the clinical advancement of bacTRL-Spike, the company's orally administered vaccine candidate for the prevention of COVID-19 and the expansion of the bacTRL platform towards additional vaccine targets.
"This is an important step in the development of orally administered vaccines for COVID-19 and other important infectious diseases, both now and for the future. We are extremely excited to continue this essential work with support from NRC IRAP," said Alexander Graves, CEO of Symvivo Corporation, in a statement.
The funding follows a previous NRC IRAP-funded R&D project enabling the development and initial clinical assessment of Symvivo's bacTRL-Spike vaccine candidate which has met the required scientific and technical thresholds for advancement.
bacTRL-Spike is the company's oral vaccine candidate for the prevention of COVID-19. Unlike traditional vaccines that are delivered by intramuscular injection, bacTRL-Spike is taken orally, providing the potential for individuals to self-administer the vaccine.
