Munich (dpa/lby) – In the fight against Corona, medicine and politics have high hopes for a vaccine that is not injected, but gets on the mucous membranes with a nasal spray. “The vaccines we have used to date provide good protection against severe courses. Nasal vaccines can provide real protection against infection and would therefore be a major medical advance,” said Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) on Thursday in Munich, according to a statement. He informed himself about the development of a new vaccine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) clinic.
“The aim must now be to transfer the vaccine to the clinical trial phase,” said Holetschek. Since August, the research project led by Josef Rosenecker has been supported by the Federal Ministry of Health with 1.7 million euros. Rosenecker emphasized that the vaccines currently administered intramuscularly provide good protection against severe disease courses, but do not prevent the transmission of the virus. “Nasal vaccinations, on the other hand, could mean that vaccinated people no longer become infected.” This can prevent vaccinated viruses from carrying symptoms and infecting others.
Another advantage of nasal vaccines is that the acceptance of vaccination may increase – after all, the variant is painless. Side effects should also be significantly milder.
Mucous membrane vaccines should build up immunity directly at the point of entry of Sars-CoV-2 and then fight the pathogens quickly. At the beginning of September, two preparations were approved in India and China. Dozens of other candidates are in development, and some are already being tested in clinical trials.