Oral COVID-19 vaccine being tested

(HealthDay)—California researchers are testing whether an oral vaccine offers similar or better protection than current COVID-19 shots.

The capsule-delivered vaccine under development at the Chan Soon-Shiong Research Institute in El Segundo is being tested in healthy volunteers, CBS News reported.

Existing vaccines promote production of antibodies to the spike protein on the surface of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but the ImmunityBio T cell oral vaccine targets the globe in the middle of the virus, a part that is less prone to mutation, according to scientists. "And the value of doing so is that we generate killer T cells," ImmunityBio founder and Executive Chairman Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., told CBS News.

The ImmunityBio researchers believe they may be able to create long-term protection by generating both antibodies and killer T cells.