The seventy-third meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) was held online on May 18 and 19. In a newspaper gallery The world As of May 14, 2020, a collective of over 130 international figures had asked the ministers of health, participating in this meeting, to guarantee universal and free access to the Covid-19 vaccine.
The search for a vaccine to fight the coronavirus pandemic poses health, economic and political challenges. Photo: Pixabay
–
The vaccine race has started. Over a hundred scientific groups have launched a search for a vaccine against Sars-CoV-2 infection. On April 20, WHO already reported more than 70 vaccines undergoing preclinical evaluation. Few of these aspiring vaccines will end up competing. The design time is one to two years minimum and is almost not compressible. The development of a vaccination requires large teams of researchers and considerable time to isolate, cultivate and modify immunizing viral particles. A vaccine against Covid-19 will therefore not be available before the summer of 2021. In a year, will it still be necessary? Yes, of course, if the Sars-CoV-2 is still in circulation on the planet.
An economic drift
In reality this question is of no importance. If one or more vaccines are available, in a year or more, they will necessarily be implemented. Research and development of vaccines is expensive and the power of pharmaceutical companies is such that the logic of public health is often reversed. It is no longer the importance and severity of a disease that determines the introduction of a vaccine. It is the marketing of a vaccine that generates a public health priority regarding a disease. This economic drift does not detract from the interest of most vaccines in the prevention of many infectious diseases.
Arguments to protesters of vaccination
Studies on a Covid-19 vaccine candidate must validate its safety and efficacy. In other words, its ability to trigger an adapted, lasting and safe response from the immune system. One of the bosses of the virology department of the Pasteur Institute, Frederic Tanguy, warned: “Ithere is a risk ofimmuno-pathogenè(…) and facilitate the’infection instead of preventing it. Any vaccine that is under development must meet three basic criteria for obtaining marketing authorization: safety, efficacy, quality. Many studies on local and general tolerance, on the immune response are essential. The toxicity of the adjuvant, that possible for multiple doses, on pregnancy must be evaluated. Protection against the target infection, drug interactions and the sensitivity of particular populations (infants, ethnic groups, elderly) also need to be tested. Given the political pressures and the considerable economic challenges, it is very likely that accelerated marketing procedures will be granted to laboratories wishing to market the Covid-19 vaccines. These procedures shorten the observation time of vaccinated patients and limit the possibility of observing side effects during clinical trials. These careless derogations will give additional arguments to those who object to vaccination.
Mercantile recognition
For free, let’s not dream. The vaccine will not be free. We can just hope that vaccination, for certain populations, will be covered by the different state health systems, international humanitarian organizations and collective or individual health insurance. In France, as in much of Europe, almost all of the vaccines, usually used in children and adolescents, are manufactured by four international laboratories: Sanofi Pasteur, GSK, Pfizer and MSD (or Merck United States). President Macron said in a choice, naive, hypocritical or demagogic way, that any Covid-19 vaccine should be ” a global common good, extracted from the laws of the market ” The bosses of the big pharmaceutical groups are not selfless philanthropists. They apply the financial logic of the market in search of profits. They show gratitude for the gratitude for those who inject billions of dollars into their laboratories.
Paul Hudson, chief executive of Sanofi, said that the US authorities, having invested heavily in their businesses, would be the first to be served if a vaccine against Covid-19 was discovered. Europe must therefore understand that it must be just as generous if it is to take advantage of the mercantile recognition of the pharmaceutical industry …
Edward Jenner dared to inoculate, on May 14, 1796, pus from a pustule of a woman suffering from cow-poxen, to young James Philips in order to immunize him against the smallpox virus, suspected of Chinese origin. Could he imagine that two hundred years later, a frantic but lucrative international competition would start to create a vaccine against a new Chinese virus?
Jean-Paul Briand
–
