USask’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization has two COVID-19 vaccines it is working on.  Director and CEO, Dr. Volker Gerdts says their original vaccine begins Phase 2 of clinical trials in Canada in January. The second vaccine will also begin Phase 2 trials, but they will happen in Africa. It was specifically designed to be effective against the Omicron variant.

VIDO was awarded $6-million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI, to establish vaccines that protect against the COVID variants, and are suitable for use in low and middle-income countries. They need to be easy to handle, to make, and very stable to transport and store.  If the vaccine is successful, Dr. Gerdts says VIDO would transfer the technology to the institutes conducting the trials in Africa, then they would continue on with Phase 3 and would do their own manufacturing there.

Gerdts emphasizes they are also testing their original vaccine against Omicron. He adds that VIDO is one of the few places in the world that has all of the coronavirus variants – Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron, and they are able to test all COVID vaccines, not just their own, but those that belong to other companies, to quickly address whether they are effective.