MigVax was established as a special purpose vehicle by Migal, which granted MigVax an exclusive, worldwide license to make, use, and practice the vaccine technology for the development, manufacture, and commercialization of vaccines for viruses in humans, starting with COVID-19.
The COVID-19 vaccine project was initiated upon the interdisciplinary research team’s successful development of a vaccine against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), an avian (poultry) coronavirus with high similarity to today’s human COVID-19 that uses the same infection mechanism. Given the similarity, and following the required genetic adjustments, the same vaccination concepts should apply.
MigVax’s sub-unit vaccine approach utilizes a chimeric protein that presents the viral proteins to the immune system via the oropharynx. This method, based on the IBV vaccine, generates three types of immunological response: mucosal immunity (IgA), blood-based immunity (IgG), and cell-mediated immunity.