‘One-stop’ pandemic jab cleared human testing

Australian scientists have had their faith in troubled molecular clamp vaccine technology vindicated.

Keith Chappell, inventor of molecular clamp technology, at the University of Queensland. Picture: Liam Kidston

Australia’s reworked molecular clamp vaccine for Covid-19 has cleared early stage human testing, potentially offering one-stop protection against a range of pandemic viruses.

Immunity generated by the Clamp2 formulation is in line with that of an existing frontline Covid vaccine and provides a platform to speed the response to future infectious disease threats, its developers say.

The successful proof-of-concept trial vindicates the faith of University of Queensland scientists in technology that hit the wall at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020 when the original Clamp vaccine returned false positive readings to HIV.

While the glitch did not affect safety or performance, the Australian-made immuniser was abandoned before it could be proven in human trials and fast-tracked into production.

The added benefit of the revived Clamp2 vaccine is that it is designed to be rejigged against other known pandemic pathogens such as Nipah – a variation of the deadly Australian bat-borne Hendra virus transmitted to horses and people – Ebola, Lassa fever and rodent-transmitted arenavirus – as well as future mutations of the coronavirus that gave rise to Covid-19.

Scientists say another, possibly more deadly, global outbreak is inevitable.

The international Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, which funded development of Covid vaccines and pledged up to $8.5m to the Clamp2 project, said adaptable platforms would be critical to countering future threats.

“CEPI is striving towards vaccines being developed within 100 days of a new virus emerging: a goal known as the 100 Days Mission,” CEPI programs and innovative technology director In-Kyu Yoon said. “I look forward to the continued progress of this cutting-edge technology.”

In the proof-of-concept trial, Clamp2 was shown to be safe for people and benchmarked against the approved Novavax vaccine for Covid.

This has been used 266,000 times in Australia to date, according to regulator the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

The vaccines were found to be “functionally equivalent”, UQ project leader Keith Chappell said. “The Clamp2 trial group showed a 2.5-fold boost in neutralising ‘titres’ and it was 2.1 in the Novavax group,” Dr Chappell said.

“The two vaccines produced highly comparable results. However, while there were no new Covid infections among the Clamp2 volunteers, there have been three Covid cases detected among Nuvaxovid (Novavax) recipients so far.”

Given the market saturation by existing Covid vaccines, the development team opted against putting Clamp2 through the full suite of human trials and registration requirements to bring a new drug to market.

But Dr Chappell said the proof-of-concept testing cleared the way for Clamp2 to be used in other research programs, an “exciting reward” for the work that went into the UQ program and the community support it attracted.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the state government was committed to backing local manufacture of promising biotech such as Clamp2.