| Vaccine description | |
|---|---|
| Target | SARS-CoV-2 |
| Vaccine type | Protein subunit |
| Clinical data | |
| Other names | SARS-CoV-2 Sclamp |
| Routes of administration | Intramuscular |
| Legal status | |
| Legal status |
|
V451 was a COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by the University of Queensland and the Australian pharmaceutical company CSL Limited. The vaccine candidate used the University of Queensland's molecular clamp technology[1] and the MF59 adjuvant.[2]
V451 is a protein subunit vaccine. As part of the vaccine's design, researchers added "a fragment of one protein found on the HIV virus"[3] as a "ground-breaking molecular clamp technology".[4]
The development of the vaccine was cancelled on 11 December 2020 during its Phase I trial, after a number of trial participants were found to give false positive test results for HIV antibodies when they did not in fact have HIV.[5][6] This was due to the HIV virus fragment used as a molecular clamp leading to "a partial antibody response" to HIV. This is an undesirable outcome as it will interfere with future HIV screening tests for affected participants.[7]
Nine days prior to the termination, on 2 December, the first emergency use authorisation had been granted to a COVID-19 vaccine; the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the United Kingdom.[8] Following the termination of V451, vaccine production capacity by CSL Limited was diverted to the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.[9]
