Brussels, Frankfurt EU Research Commissioner Mariya Gabriel stokes hope that a coronavirus vaccine will be available quickly. Typically, the approval of a new serum takes twelve to 18 months, she told the Handelsblatt. “But we expect a vaccine to be available on the market much faster, possibly in the fall.” It was a race against time.
Companies and researchers are currently working on vaccines against the new Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus. Before they can be used, however, the active ingredients must be tested extensively for effectiveness and possible health risks. When it comes to safety, Gabriel should not make any compromises: “We cannot allow shortcuts in clinical trials that could endanger human life.”
The use of supercomputers can help to identify effective vaccines and medicines for the coronavirus more quickly, said the Bulgarian. An EU-funded research project called Exscalate4CoV uses the computers in Bologna, Barcelona and Jülich to identify molecules that may be effective against the virus. “What would take several years using conventional methods can be done by the supercomputers within a few months,” says Gabriel.
The Commission is funding 18 corona virus research projects with a total of 48.5 million euros from the EU funding program. The pan-European research teams are also working on faster detection tests for the virus.
Most experts and the responsible pharmaceutical authorities have so far been rather skeptical that a vaccine will be available before the end of the year. The background is not least the considerable difficulties that have been revealed in the past in many other vaccine projects, such as HIV or malaria.
Question of capacities
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is also much more cautious. The timeline for new vaccine development is very difficult to predict, it said in its recent communication on the corona situation. It is estimated that it will take at least a year before a vaccine against Covid-19 is ready for approval and is available in sufficient quantities.
Overall, the agency says it is now holding talks about around a dozen development projects in this area. Two vaccine candidates are already in the first phase of clinical trials.
Virtually all established vaccine manufacturers such as Glaxo-Smithkline, Pfizer or Sanofi are involved in the development, as are a number of biotech companies. These include the German companies Curevac and Biontech. In cooperation with Pfizer, Biontech plans to start clinical trials for its own vaccine candidate at the end of April. Curevac plans this step in early summer. The US company Moderna has meanwhile brought a first candidate into the clinical tests.
From there, there is still a long way to go before such a product is ready for the market. Because, like all vaccines, a Covid 19 vaccine will have to demonstrate a high level of safety in larger so-called phase III studies.
It is therefore not surprising that the WHO experts expected at least 18 months until a vaccine was available, explains Alexander Roussanov, partner at the Arnold & Porter law firm and former legal advisor for drug approvals at the EMA. In addition, the entire discussion cannot ignore whether there is sufficient capacity to start the production of the new vaccines quickly enough.
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