Member Info for KonarA

@Chelsea11.. no thats not correct either. There is observational data that suggests it is milder - this is legitimate and relevant to report. We just don't have the large scale sample size to say it definitively yet.

I don't have a source "confirming" it - which is why I said it is "reported" to be milder symptoms. If you type "omicron mild" into google you will find many news stories covering this.

Omicron is reported to have milder symptoms and is becoming the dominant variant. Every bit as likely that we will see a reduction in ICU beds as a consequence.

yes this jumped out at me too Wildforce. Firstly, because it is an excellent outcome for the patients themselves (and that is what Lindy is all about),but secondly as it adds huge evidence to the fact that the immune response from immunobody is durable even in the face of one of the most aggressive diseases.

If they were to sell the whole immunobody platform, I would expect it to be for many many multiples of the current market cap!

@TorquayFan - clearly none of that can be true, because Hasiba told us yesterday that it was a "storm in a tea cup" ;-)

Hasiba - a health minister giving a line to the news is about as far away as you can get from "publishing your findings". I wouldn't take anything from that comment without seeing the published data, particularly given that they only have 4 cases of Omicron in the country.

"Boosters are working very well and today Israel has published its findings as per my previous link."

If you read your link, it very clearly says Israel HASN'T published their findings. Or did you not get past the headline?

So that view is predicated on the N protein delivering the effect we hope it will (and i have a lot of faith that it will, its just unproven clinically at the moment) We would still want Covidity to be at least as effective as the 1st generation vaccines on VNABS against the RBD of the S protein. That way we at least are comparable with current standard of care. However, with the mutations of Omicron in both the S protein and the RBD then we are not guaranteed to be as effective.

On a positive side though - if i remember correctly from the science paper - SCOV2 was based on the Beta variant of the illness which showed the same S Protein drop out that is being found in Omicron. I wonder if this could be an indicator that vaccines built of Beta will be more effective against Omicron than those targeting Alpha?

For the record - I remain very positive here and rate it a strong buy - just trying to highlight that a new variant mid-trial is a curve ball.

Yes roses agreed.. its a double edged sword. Best case scenario (I'm talking purely from a Scancell perspective here - not the unfortunate people that would be effected) would be for Covidity to show an ongoing high % of immunity where the 1st generation vaccines show a significant drop.

the only other view i would make on the trial, is that Omicron may turn out to be a double edged sword for the trial. On the one hand we may get accelerated recruitment, and we also have a potential opportunity to demonstrate that covidity can work against an additional strain. On the other hand, our headline trial results will no doubt be compared with the 1st generation vaccines against the original pandemic. So in other words, if SCOV2 *would* have resulted in a 99% protection against Alpha, Beta or Delta, but *only* achieves 80% against a now dominant Omniron, then this could be perceived as failure in the public eye who are used to seeing approved vaccine figures in the 90%+.

I'm pretty sure Scancell would have preferred that the ground hadn't moved under their feet in South Africa in the way that it has, but I am sure the Scancell team will already be working to determine the likely clinical impact that omicron may have.

(sorry clicked post by accident)

It's pretty disappointing though if we can't get 40 participants for a vaccine trial in a country... that currently has low vaccine roll out % and growing case numbers. Hopefully Omicron will give recruitment a boost.

As i understood it, Lindy stated that the 2nd doses had begun. i don't believe it was reported that 1st doses had all been completed. The 2nd doses will be given according to the dosing schedule defined in the trial protocol. So the 1st patient will have their 2nd dose on day 29 (28 days after first dose) irrespective of if all 40 patients have been recruited. Each patient will have their own dosing time table based on when they were recruited.

It is every bit possible that the 1st patient will have had their 2nd dose before all 40 recruits have had their 1st dose, depending on the success of the recruitment. The criteria for inclusion and no exclusion are pretty long, so I imagine quite a few people will be rejected on these:

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05047445?term=Scancell&draw=2&rank=1

They also would have started dosing the first patient without identifying all 40 participants in advance. Someone could become ineligible for the trial whilst waiting for other participants to be recruited. The old "Grab em and Jab em" approach wins here.

AIMHO

It's pretty disappointing though if we can't get 40 participants for a vaccine trial in a country

Thanks for the update MrAverage - so same as ever, no listing on the horizon.

RR - a booster dose gives a significant boost in immunity over two doses alone, and a mix and match approach gives a stronger response than a single supplier. The advice from the likes of Johnathon Ball - don't wait around for a mutation specific vaccine, a booster will give you better protection irrespective of the variant. I believe the reduction to 3 months is not so much that immunity is waning then, but more that it gives a much stronger response after 3 doses, and the sooner people have that the more likely we are to suppress the pandemic - particularly Omicron.

However, having said all of that - a laboratory assessment of the "strength" of an immune response is only somewhat useful. Data from the real world will evidence how effective the booster programme is. A 10 fold increase in immune response, doesn't necessarily result in a 10x reduction in cases. That is why the data from Israel's booster programme will be significant.

@MrAverage - did SB stick to his promise to update you?

I wasn't commenting on the diminishing market in the UK and fully agree the global market is the target for SCOV2. It was more that the plan is to run the trial in the UK - that presumably has a window, unless of course the MHRA trial design allows for SCOV2 to be given to already boosted patients?

"Sorry Bermuda didn't catch that part although I assumed SCOV1 as second dose is now being administered (confirmed by Lindy)"

That is a hugely significant piece of news.. it suggests that no significant side effects have been encountered!

@bermudashorts - out posts crossed, and i too would be keen to know the answer to your valid question

the danger of course is that with the emphasis being on getting everyone over 40 given a booster, then we may well be running out of potential candidates if this runs into march or april.