While the corona virus is claiming more and more victims, medical science is working hard on vaccines and drugs. The CEO and medical microbiologist Jan Groen from the Dutch Institute for Vaccine Development Intravacc in the Science Park Bilthoven expects that it will still take at least one and a half to two years until a vaccine is available. “When you give the vaccine, you have to be sure that it is good. You cannot skip steps ”.
CEO Jan Groen from Intravacc
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Is Intravacc the main vaccine development institute in the Netherlands?
“It’s the only one.”
In your opinion, what are the most important starting points for developing a vaccine against corona?
“Every day you read a message that scientists have discovered something new against the corona virus. Rotterdam found something, Utrecht found something, and so on and so on. But it’s really just about laboratory-scale knowledge. To put it simply: Small cell culture bottles are used to check whether the virus can be inhibited or whether a prototype of a vaccine can be produced and its effects on the virus can be recognized. But that is far from a product that can be used in humans. Many test phases would still have to go through ”.
What do you think is the importance of the discovery of an antibody against the coronavirus by Erasmus MC researchers?
“According to the WHO, there are more than 42 initiatives to develop corona vaccines worldwide. Erasmus MC is one of them. You have developed a monoclonal antibody against the coronavirus. A publication is currently being published. But that’s just proof that it could possibly work that way. It doesn’t mean we can apply that tomorrow. With such a state of affairs, no means can be administered to a human being. You will treat someone who is very sick. If you don’t know enough about how it works, it could make the disease worse. You also need to know if the corona patient has other diseases and how the substance reacts to them ”.
What are the best ways to treat Covid 19 patients?
“There are three options. The first is the traditional vaccine. The second is passive immunization. The third is the antiviral. ”
What is the difference between these three options?
“An antivirus is said to slow the infection down, as happens with people with HIV. Chloroquine is an anti-malaria preparation that has been studied in China and France, among others. slows the course of corona diseases. You will also start using it in the Netherlands. The advantage of chloroquine is that it has been tested on humans for a long time. It is manufactured by ACE Pharmaceuticals in Zeewolde, among others. ”
You can’t really speed up clinical trials. If you inject the vaccine into people, you have to make sure that it has no side effects.
What is passive immunization?
“Virus-specific antibodies ensure that the virus is caught in an infected body. When someone is infected, it takes a while for their body to produce antibodies. Sometimes the body goes crazy. Then he might get even sicker. The administration of specific antibodies that attack the virus could inhibit it in a corona patient. This is called passive immunization. This also includes the discovery of the antibody by the Erasmus MC researchers ”.
These two remedies are for people who are already sick.
“Yes, vaccines are a preventive measure. They are given to the population in advance to prevent them from getting sick, as we do in children, for example to protect against measles, polio and whooping cough. ”
Which of the three measures is preferable?
“Preference is prevention.”
For this you need a vaccine.
“Yes, you can do large-scale animal experiments relatively quickly in a laboratory and show in a preclinical phase that it works. But then you have to take the next step towards vaccine safety: the purity, the quality and the dose before administration. You need to find out how to scale the product up from laboratory to large bioreactors. In what form do you want and can you offer the vaccines? Liquid? Freeze-dried? It really takes a lot of time and effort before a vaccine can hit the market. People believe: ‘We did it in nine months’. But I think it will take at least a year and a half to two years before we have a good Corona vaccine. ”
And what’s next?
“First and foremost, we have to stop the spread of the virus as much as possible: to save time and reduce the pressure on hospitals. The option that remains is to examine how we can best help the people who have been brought in. What can we do to slow the virus down in patients who cannot breathe properly because their lungs are infected? The funds for this are still too limited at the moment. But hopefully we will have medication soon. We are working very hard on it. ”
Is developing a cure through passive immunization faster than developing a cure through a vaccine?
“No. You also have to see how much of which substance you have to administer and whether it is different in children than in adults. These are extremely long studies. The same applies to the development of vaccinations. Will a single dose be enough? Some vaccines require e.g. several vaccinations. And you can’t give them all at once. You have to find out all of this. ”
What are the steps to take before a Corona vaccine is available?
“One of the ideas from the list of 42 initiatives is, for example, that the virus should be grown and inactivated (in other words, kill). You have to maintain the protein structure that makes the vaccine effective. So before you kill, the way must be clear. You also need to make sure that the dead virus maintains the immune response. Then you look for a suitable test animal on which you can test the vaccine. Can you use certain mice or not? You will be immunized with the preparation. Then the mouse is infected with the virus. If it responds positively, you can move on to the next level. ”
What can you do to inhibit coronavirus in people who cannot breathe properly because their lungs are infected? The funds for this are still too limited at the moment. But hopefully we will have medication soon. We are working very hard on it.
How long will this first phase last?
“Several months in each case We also want to know: how long does the vaccination work? If it is no longer effective after six months or a year, it will be of little use ”.
Is that one of the reasons why vaccine development will take a long time?
“We don’t know how long it will take because we don’t know enough about this corona virus. The flu keeps coming back because the properties of the virus can change every year. We think this corona virus is a stable virus that doesn’t change much. But we have to prove that first. If that is the case, you can get by with a single vaccination. ”
Why do you think it’s a stable virus?
“There are a lot of different corona viruses. They don’t usually change. But this is another branch of the Corona family. So we have to look at it separately. ”
Which stage comes after the tests on mice?
“Then we have to start testing other animals that are closer to humans.”
Monkeys?
“There is no need to use monkeys because there are currently enough alternatives.”
How long is the phase with the second type of experimental animals? Three months?
“At least”.
What’s next?
“You have to see what dose a patient should get. It is then checked how long the substance remains in the body after the administration of a dose. If it lasts long, it means that he has built up immunity ”.
Can the production of the vaccine be accelerated?
“It has to be absolutely safe for human use. All developments in the past have shown that the existing processes should not be abandoned ”.
If you see how many companies are working on it now, it should be possible to develop a drug for Covid-19. HIV has also been inhibited. It has now become a chronic illness.
Assume that the development process is accelerated: who would decide?
“The governments of different countries. The WHO only gives advice that is not country-specific. Certainly the pharmaceutical companies that develop vaccines also play a role. ”
But is it possible to speed up the process?
“No. You can’t really speed up clinical trials. If you inject the vaccine into people, you have to make sure that it has no side effects. You could speed up the production process if you used more people. ”
Is there a possibility that a vaccine or an inhibitory drug will not work?
“If you see how many companies are working on it now, it should be successful. HIV has also been inhibited. It is now a chronic disease ”.
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