Latin America is also joining the global race against time to find a vaccine against the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, and a team of scientists from the Millennium Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy in Chile has just started the formulation phase of a new prototype. The research group has the experience accumulated in the last decade in the development of vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus (hMPV).
The timing of the new vaccine
“Once we have obtained the vaccine prototype, several experimental stages must be carried out and passed, including preclinical trials, corresponding to laboratory-level tests that demonstrate safety and effectiveness in experimental models,” explains Alexis Kalergis, director. Of the investigation. “Once this stage is completed, the vaccine prototype must be manufactured under conditions of good manufacturing practices to comply with national and international regulations. With this new formulation, and if everything goes as expected, the next stage would correspond to carrying out clinical safety tests in humans ”, says the scientist.
Although it is difficult to talk about specific timelines, Kalergis believes that the vaccine could be ready for administration and sale in a year and a half. All these stages must be successfully passed to demonstrate that a vaccine is safe and effective, which will also depend on the results that are obtained, the availability of resources and compliance with the regulations necessary to complete the studies. “Therefore, it is difficult to anticipate the deadlines until the end of the development of the vaccine and thus obtain a drug for use in the population,” he concludes.
The southern hemisphere is preparing for the arrival of winter, and in these countries the possible coincidence of influenza viruses, RSV and the new coronavirus is of particular concern. The project also has researchers from the Catholic University and the Molecular Clinical Biomedicine Technological Consortium.
