Codagenix, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology startup, has contracted with the Serum Institute of India to manufactuer CDX-005, the company’s intranasal, live-attenuated vaccine candidate for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Preclinical animal studies have been successfully completed, and the Long Island, New York  company expects to initiate a Phase 1 first-in-human clinical trial in the United Kingdom shortly.

According to CEO  J. Robert Coleman, the vaccine was engineered using a proprietary “codon deoptimization” software platform, which allowed the  company “to recode the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus by inserting hundreds of mutations. These mutations result in a live-attenuated vaccine that is non-pathogenic yet has the potential to stimulate a robust T cell and antibody immune response that mimics that of the wild-type virus. “