Creators of no-needle COVID-19 vaccine made in Hamilton seeking participants – CTV
April 22, 2025
More than 300 people are currently being recruited for the testing of a no-needle COVID-19 vaccine that’s made in Hamilton.
This particular vaccine, formally named ChAd-triCoV/Mac, is inhaled instead of injected. The vaccine is being developed at McMaster’s Robert E. Fitzhenry Vector Laboratory—the university’s immunology research centre—and is “entirely Canadian… with Canadian participants, at Canadian research sites.”
The original call for participants went out in March, with 30 participants enrolled at the Hamilton site so far, AeroVax told CTV News Toronto. In total, the AeroVax study is looking for 350 people between the ages of 18 to 65 in Hamilton, Ottawa and Halifax, who have received at least three doses of a mRNA COVID-19 vaccine like Pfizer or Moderna, according to an AeroVax release.
Aerovax says the inhaled vaccine was “more effective at inducing immune responses than traditional injected vaccines because it directly targets the lungs and upper airways.” The vaccine started Phase 1 with 36 participants. Phase 1 verified that there were no major side effects, AeroVax says, and also helped to verify the appropriate dose for Phase 2. Further details of Phase 1 will be available as soon as the study’s findings are published, AeroVax says.
