Mynvax developed heat tolerant COVID vaccine, seeking investments for clinical development

Mynvax, an IISc incubated startup is seeking investments to develop its existing formulations into a game-changer vaccine that does not require refrigeration. The co-founders of this startup Biophysicist Raghavan Varadarajan and Biotech entrepreneur Gautham Nadig have developed and tested a heat-tolerant vaccine formulation.

Bengaluru: Mynvax developed " Heat tolerant COVID vaccine" and is seeking investments for clinical development.

The startup was co-founded by Biophysicist Raghavan Varadarajan and Biotech entrepreneur Gautham Nadig. Together with IISc and other collaborators, they have developed and tested a heat-tolerant vaccine formulation within a few months of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. When freeze-dried, the vaccine antigen can be exposed to 37°C for over a month without loss of activity.

India has infrastructural constraints for maintaining low temperature (2-8°c) storage facilities. Hence the Mynvax team believes that such a heat-tolerant vaccine can be widely deployed, including in remote areas.

Speaking regarding updates on the vaccine development, Professor Raghavan Varadarajan said to ETV Bharat that further development requires the funding of the order of ₹ 15 crores to complete studies including initial clinical trials.

The formulation has shown promising results in several animal models including hamsters.

ETV Bharat asked the Professor whether the "heat-tolerant vaccine" would work on the mutated virus variant recently isolated in the UK. He answered that only one of the mutations was found in the antigen used in the Mynvax formulation and hence the vaccine was expected to be effective against the new strain also, this would be tested in the near future.

Karnataka alone has a population of over 7 crores, arranging cold storage facilities for COVID 19 vaccines will be a huge challenge when vaccinating the masses. Currently, the state has only 2,900 cold storage points.

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