Hungarian-Austrian vaccine about to be tested on animals

Hungarian and Austrian researchers are working on a second-generation protein-based vaccine. They are about to enter a new phase in the process and start testing on animals.

The Virology Research Group of the University of Pécs (PTE), together with Austrian biotechnology company CEBINA started a vaccine development project last year. They wish to develop a second-generation modern subunit vaccine.

According to 24, they are already done with the in vitro laboratory phase, and after evaluating the results, they are planning the animal testing phase, which will most likely start at the end of January or beginning of February.

The Hungarian-Austrian vaccine research is a little bit different from others as the vaccine they are developing belongs to the category of second-generation protein-based vaccines.

As Ferenc Jakab, professor at PTE and the head of the National Virology Laboratory, explained, there are three types of vaccines. The first-generation vaccines are traditional virus vaccines containing inactivated/killed viruses, and these were used already in the 1950s. Then came the second generation of vaccines, most of which are subunit vaccines, using more modern, molecular biology technologies and only a certain protein of the pathogen.