The Minister of Science, Andrés Couve, reported that the clinical trial prepared by the Catholic University and Sinovac with public contributions from 2.6 billion of pesos for making a vaccine.
“Today there is no vaccine for Covid-19therefore our efforts must be directed to that vaccine exists. That is why we have been working since April with a scientific group, “he warned.
This is why “from the Ministry of Science it has been defined that the clinical trial prepared by the Catholic University and Sinovac will be supported by the public sector with public contributions of 2.6 billion pesos,” the authority announced.
Couve explained that there are important advances regarding the development of Sinovac, but that despite this, talks continue with “Janssen, Oxford, Moderna and CanSino, these five developments that are very advanced and each one of them entering the experimental phases 3, which are those that incorporate a greater number of volunteers to test the effectiveness, once they have already been shown to be safe. “
In addition, he pointed out that once vaccines already exist it will be the Ministry of Health and its technical organizations who decide what will be the vaccine which will be distributed and what will be its schedule.
“In Chile a consortium of universities is being assembled that will be responsible for executing these clinical trials. Today there are eight universities associated with this consortium, from the Metropolitan Region and also from other regions, making clinical trials possible at the national level, “he added.
????????Minister @acouvecorrea explains the creation of a consortium of universities for Phase III clinical trials in our country and announces the support of $ 2.6 billion from the public sector to research led by the @ucatolica.https://t.co/VUFR4YDhSQ pic.twitter.com/JvHOxtpt2v
– Ministry of Science (@min_ciencia) August 2, 2020
3,000 volunteers are expected for testing
The rector of the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC), Ignacio Sánchez, announced that they are expected around 3,000 volunteers to test the Sinovac vaccine since this August.
“We are in a position to start the protocol this August, in fact, next week all the necessary agreements are made with the budget department, with the CPC, so we hope to have that money in the coming days to contact the eventual volunteers, “he said.
And he explained that “it is a protocol that lasts several months, which includes two vaccinations and measurement of the immune response of the ability to have antibodies with the question of how long these antibodies last. We know that this vaccination will have to be done with a certain periodicity and those are the exams that are being done to have -we hope- by the end of the year the national response“.
Regarding volunteers, the authority detailed that they should preferably be people associated with health care, adults and under 60 years that do not present pathologies or risk diseases.
In this line, he clarified that there will be no remuneration for those who participate nor a collection for the supply of the two doses to be performed by people. However, he informed that the transfer and exams will be paid to follow up on the process, which will last around a year.
Rector @ucatolica Ignacio Sánchez:
“Phase 3 of a vaccine against #COVID_19. It is a great responsibility for us to lead this work and we have had a great collaboration from the @ministeriosalud Budget Management and the @min_ciencia“. pic.twitter.com/nDiPYJSlBK
– Ministry of Health (@ministeriosalud) August 2, 2020
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