A NEW safe and effective oral flu vaccine is on the horizon that is sure to be a real game-changer.

A new study from VAXART and Stanford published in the prestigious journal Lancet shows that VAXART’s oral tablet vaccine, which utilizes a non-spreading adenovirus to carry the flu protein, is just as effective at creating immunity and preventing the flu from a particular strain as the standard injection.

“This is an encouraging study of an influenza vaccine that allows for a potentially important alternative form of administration, in this case by oral tablet,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “The results from the challenge study are encouraging. It will be important to determine how the vaccine performs with natural infection in the community.”

The availability of an oral flu vaccine would be a major breakthrough not only because of the obvious comfort of avoiding a needle prick but because an oral tablet vaccine would be easier and faster to distribute and administer than a vaccine shot.

The oral flu vaccine is still at least five years away from market, according to Sean Tucker, chief science officer at VAXART. Tucker said that research is also ongoing in animals to make the upcoming universal flu vaccine available in pill form. (SD-Agencies)