It is a race against time. Following the pandemic caused by Covid-19, the pharmaceutical industry and research laboratories are working around the clock to find a vaccine. Because it is a complex and time-consuming process, several scientists have warned of the possibility of humanity having to learn to live with this viral threat during the coming times and adapt to new rules of life in society to avoid new waves of contagion. Most experts estimate that it will be necessary 12 to 18 months to develop and manufacture a vaccine. Many point to April next year as the best possibility for its existence.
However, because it is the “The only tool that allows the world to return to a feeling of normalcy”, as United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres assured, by “saving millions of lives and billions of dollars”, tests are underway for more than 70 potential vaccines and treatments for Covid-19. The data are from the World Health Organization. Most are in pre-clinical trials but this Tuesday, UK Health Minister Matt Hancock announced that he will start to test a vaccine against Covid-19 in humans this Thursday. The project is funded by the British government and developed by scientists at Oxford University, but still “there are no guarantees ”that it will succeed, admitted Hancock.
Here is what is already known about this project, which will be the first to move forward:
The tests will start this Thursday. The investigation is conducted by the researcher and professor of vaccinology, Sarah Gilbert, from the University of Oxford. In an interview with the BBC, the scientist assured that the team responsible for this study has experience in similar trials and therefore “does not expect big surprises”. At this stage, scientists have not yet started to immunize anyone. But the process of selecting volunteers has already been completed, which included clinical analyzes and health examinations. Participants were told of some side effects, such as mild fever or swelling at the injection site, which have been seen in other trials.
This Tuesday, British Health Minister Matt Hancock announced an investment of over 20 million pounds (22 million euros) for this research, which is taking place at an unprecedented rate – years of work are being done. condensed into months.
In the first phase of the study at the University of Oxford, the tests will cover 500 volunteers between 18 and 55 years old, and will then be extended to older people. Researchers want to make sure that this vaccine works in older people because they are the most vulnerable to the virus. According to Sarah Gilbert, this is very important because as the immune system ages it is “more difficult to protect this age group”.
In this clinical trial, half of the volunteers will receive the vaccine for the new coronavirus, while the other half will receive the meningitis vaccine. “None of the groups will know which vaccine they received,” adds the professor. Everyone is asked to make life normal. As people become infected with the new coronavirus, they will be subjected to the Covid-19 screening test. Then, when a sufficient number of volunteers have been infected, it will be up to mathematicians and epidemiologists to check in which group these people were included in the clinical trial.
“The goal is that all those infected with Covid-19 belong to the meningitis vaccine group.” When that happens, explains Sarah Gilbert, it is possible to say that the vaccine works.
The team of scientists is already outlining plans to mass produce this vaccine, even before they know if it will work. “We are going to risk production,” Sarah Gilbert assured Lancet magazine.
The best scenario is that, in September 2020, we will have the capacity to manufacture large quantities of the vaccine ”.
However, the researcher also admits that this deadline may fail because there are two distinct parts of the problem: one is to check if the vaccine works (that is, if there are fewer contagions). The other part of the problem lies in the fact that it has the capacity to produce millions of doses by September, as is the goal.
Sarah Gilbert also talks about the difficulty of doing this clinical test as the contagions and admissions to hospitals are decreasing due to the measures of social restraint. Which is positive, but it hurts science.
“You can’t be absolutely sure if the vaccine will work, but the prospects are good. That’s why we have to do rehearsals ”, emphasizes Sarah Gilbert. The team of scientists at the University of Oxford admits that “in normal times, testing a vaccine in humans would take years”.
“Developing a vaccine is a matter of trial and error and trying again.” The big question is to know the success rate of the experimental vaccine. Team leader Sarah Gilbert is optimistic: “I am 80% sure it will work. This is my opinion because I worked on the trials with the MERS vaccine [síndrome respiratório do Médio Oriente, identificado em 2012, que se espalhou por 26 países, infetando mais de 1.500 pessoas e causando mais de 800 mortes, um coronavírus parecido com o SARS-CoV2]”.
The issue is complex, according to Sarah Gilbert. In terms of intellectual property, the vaccine belongs to the University of Oxford and a subsidiary, created by the university itself. At the moment, the legal context in which the vaccine will be marketed is still being studied. The scientist, in an interview with the BBC, acknowledges that the “goal is not financial”. The most important thing is that the medicine reaches as many people as possible.
“My main concern is that the vaccine is for general use and that despite being a relatively cheap vaccine to produce, production costs are covered”. To this end, Gilbert asks the British government to provide financial support to companies that are going to stop producing other vaccines and drugs to start producing only the vaccine for Covid-19.
The vaccinology professor assures that, for now, this is not a concern since the main objective is to produce a vaccine that works.
This new coronavirus, explains Sarah Gilbert, does not have a “very long immune memory”. But as the Oxford team is using the gene from another coronavirus (adenovirus), the expectation is that the immunity provided by this vaccine will be longer. Longer even than autoimmunity.
“Thus, if a sufficient number of people become immune, the new coronavirus would no longer be able to spread as effectively and measures of social distance would not be necessary”, admits the researcher.
According to the World Health Organization there are 70 vaccines against the new coronavirus to be developed worldwide, with three of them already in an advanced stage, since they are already being tested in humans. At a time when several pharmaceutical companies are struggling to try to come up with a vaccine that will fight the new coronavirus, the one that is at a more advanced stage appears to be CanSino Biologics, from Hong Kong. The other two that are already being tested on humans belong to the North American company Moderna and Inovio Pharmaceuticals, according to a document released by the WHO.
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