Covid vaccine pill breakthrough promises ‘no side effects’

Scientists claim to have developed a ‘rapid acting’ pill that vaccinates against COVID-19 without the ‘discernible side effects’ of existing vaccines. Here’s what you need to know.

Covid shots may soon be replaced by a pill after scientist claim to have developed an oral vaccine that prevents infection of the virus without the side effects of current treatments.

The pill, developed by researchers in Japan, contains a small inactive part of the SARS-CoV-2 and produces antibodies to protect against the virus.

Unlike mRNA or traditional vaccines that are administered through the blood, the “rapid-acting” pill activates through the mucus to allow antibodies to neutralise the virus closer to the source of transmission.

The breakthrough, shown in a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Biology Methods and Protocols and published by Oxford University Press, comes as new booster shots are approved by health authorities and a new inquiry was launched into the alleged cover-up of findings the pandemic leaked from a lab in China.

One of the research paper’s authors, Shin Nakamura, said the new pill would make it both easier to administer vaccines and more effective at combating illnesses.

“The best way to neutralise viruses is before they can enter inside human cells but are only on the external surface of epithelial cells that line and produce mucus in the lungs, nose, and mouth,” Oxford University Press said in a statement.

“Since the coronavirus, like influenza, infects bronchial cells, researchers believe it is important to induce the secretion of virus antigen-specific Immunoglobulin A in the mucosa rather than in the blood.”

Virologist Shi Zheng-li at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, where US intelligence believes the Covid-19 pandemic began. Picture: Getty Images

The potential for a fast-acting vaccine pill represents a new tool to combat COVID-19 as new variants render old vaccines ineffective. Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax have developed new vaccines or boosters to target new offshoots of Omicron, which became the dominant variant in late 2021.

More awareness of side effects like heart inflammation, meanwhile, is causing increased hesitation in taking boosters of the experimental mRNA injection. Almost 80 per cent of vaccinated Australians haven’t received a booster in the past six months, according to figures from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation.

Existing “COVID pills” on the market, like Paxlovid, only reduce the risk of severe disease and death among those infected and don’t prevent infection like the promise of the Japanese researcher’s experimental oral vaccine.

The researchers found that the vaccine pill, when given to monkeys under the tongue, proved effective without negative symptoms, such as headaches or fever, that have resulted from other alternative vaccines like nasal sprays.

“The method worked and animals used for the test produced the necessary antibodies against the disease without discernible side effects,” the scientists claimed.

“This suggests that, with further research, clinics may soon be able to offer oral vaccines against the coronavirus, which would be more popular and more successful against the disease.”