Everyday, during news briefings, Philippine government officials have been telling the public that they have to strictly follow sanitation and community quarantine rules to prevent contracting the novel coronavirus disease while there is still no cure and vaccine against it, or as Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire has been saying, while we are in the midst of “World War C,” referring to Covid-19.
The world has been scrambling to find a cure and vaccine against the pandemic that has infected around 5.2 million people and killed more than 330,000 globally as of May 22.
Pharmaceutical companies are racing to be the first to license a Covid-19 vaccine. The World Health Organization (WHO) said last week that there are “more than 100 candidate” vaccines, but said only seven or eight are “top” candidates, The Associated Press reported.
The WHO did not identify the top candidates. However, separate news items reported the vaccines being developed.
Among them are the two vaccines being tested by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and Sinovac Research and Development Co. Ltd.; Moderna Inc., whose mRNA-1273 vaccine was the first to begin clinical testing in humans in the US; while AstraZeneca’s AZD1222 began clinical trial in April.
Gulf Brokers listed among “important biotech stocks” to watch the Covid-19 vaccine-producing pharma companies, such as the tandem of Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, whose vaccine is expected its clinical trial in the second half of 2020 and may be available in the second half of 2021; Johnson and Johnson Inc. with its vaccine‘s human trials by September; Pfizer and BioNTech team‘s vaccine that will have human trials in August; and Inovio Pharmaceuticals and Beijing Advaccine Biotechnology Co. partnership for INO-4800 vaccine, which is now being tested on humans.
Philippines in Solidarity Trials
Is the Philippines developing its own vaccine?
The country is not doing its own research on its own vaccine, but Science Secretary Fortunato de la Peña said the government is joining the Solidarity Trials of the WHO in developing vaccines.
He said the country has chosen its partners. “We will close our deal with three collaborators,” de le Peña said in Filipino at a recent virtual news conference.
Dr. Nina Gloriani, a medical doctor, microbiologist and former head of Biotechnology Coalition of the Philippines, said the government is pro-active on this possibility and is “preparing for regulatory requirements for these trials to proceed.”
“This involvement [of the Philippines] in clinical phase I or II trials will provide a potential ‘fast’ solution to address the pandemic. Still, this will require 12 month to 18 months waiting period for regulatory approvals for safety, immunogenicity, efficacy or protection against SARS-CoV-2 or Covid-19 infection,” Gloriani told the BusinessMirror in an e-mail interview.
“While the country is open to using foreign-manufactured vaccines the soonest time possible, medium- to long-term plans to support vaccine research and development [R and D of vaccines in the country], to build capacity for our own local vaccine development agenda, will also be considered,” she said.
“This is especially true, if we want to use the local isolates [viruses or microbes circulating in our country versus isolates from other countries which may be different]. I believe we now have the human resource capable of engaging in these “biotechnological innovations,” she said.
The government is also more open to supporting infrastructure and higher end technology development for such endeavors, she added.
De la Peña added that included in the WHO Solidarity Trials are the testing of four sets of medicines.
These are remdesivir, which was previously tested as an Ebola treatment; the HIV treatment lopinavir and ritonavir; multiple sclerosis treatment interferon beta-1a; and related drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which have been used to treat illnesses including malaria and rheumatoid arthritis.
He said 100 patients will be involved and 24 hospitals have expressed intentions to join the trials.
The Department of Health earlier said the Japanese-made Avigan, or favipiravir, an antiviral drug, will be tested on Filipino patients infected with Covid-19.
De la Peña added that the country is developing anti-Covid-19 supplements and medicines from natural products.
The virgin coconut oil is undergoing laboratory tests in Singapore, and clinical trials are being held at a hospital in Santa Rosa Laguna, and soon at the Philippine General Hospital.
At the same time, lagundi, which was already approved as medicine for asthma and cough, will be tested for Covid-19 at a laboratory, while tawa-tawa, now a food supplement against dengue, will be also be subjected for lab tests against the coronavirus.
What is a vaccine?
A vaccine imitates the infection to give the immune system a preview of the disease.
Vaccination became a public health tool after Edward Jenner showed in 1796 that inoculation with the less virulent cowpox could prevent smallpox.
After his son’s death from smallpox, Benjamin Franklin regretted his decision not to inoculate his son against it, said The Conversation.
Vaccines are currently widely credited for the prevention and eradication of many of once feared deadly diseases. They prepare the immune system by generating disease-fighting proteins called antibodies, which seek out and attack if the real infectious virus ever shows up, The Conversation added.
Biotech advances used for Covid-19 vaccine
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at a recent UN Economic and Social Council video briefing, said the original thinking was that it may take 12 to 18 months to produce the vaccine for Covid-19.
Tedros said an accelerated effort is under way, that is being helped by €7.4 billion ($8 billion) pledged a week ago by leaders from 40 countries, organizations and banks for research, treatment and testing, AP said.
He said the $8 billion will not be enough, and additional funds will be needed to speed up the development of a vaccine, but more importantly to produce enough “to make sure that this vaccine reaches everyone—[and] there’s no one be left behind.”
These initiatives in producing vaccines are a step in the right direction, making use of highly advanced technologies in finding vaccines for this novel agent SARS-CoV-2 which causes atypical pneumonia, now called Covid 19, Gloriani said
“The race for vaccine development for Covid-19 is going on at a tremendous pace globally, as vaccines are seen as the best, and perhaps, the long-term solution solution to end this pandemic,” she added.
Different technology platforms previously tried and optimized for the first SARS (2003) and MERS (2012) vaccine development efforts were used for Covid-19 vaccine development, and further refined with newer technologies, adjuvants and other immune system modulators, Gloriani explained.
Preclinical studies on proof of concept for the Covid-19 vaccine were completed faster because of those “biotech” platforms, and eventually, allowed the clinical phase 1 trials to start, she said.
Gloriani explained that under normal circumstances, vaccine development takes many years before it reaches the market.
The routine vaccines currently available, such as polio, measles, DPT, BCG, HPV, PCG etc, took 10 to 15 years of development, going through the pre-clinical and the four phases of clinical trial before commercialization, she said.
She noted: “The Covid-19 vaccines being developed may reach the markets earlier because of the dire need.”
“For Covid-19, because of its pandemic nature, severity in certain high-risk groups and very high transmissibility, drug discovery and vaccine development requirements have been speeded up, many of the candidate molecules considered under ‘Emergency Use List,’” she said.
According to Gloriani, the scientific world is now “at an era or age where it is possible to study new or emerging viral agents [or any microbial agent for that matter] at the molecular level.”
“The determination of the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 allowed the development of diagnostic kits, either detecting viral RNA using rRT-PCR as well as rapid diagnostic tests to detect antibody responses in patients,” she further explained.
The advances in recombinant DNA technology, CRISPR technology, synthetic peptide technology and other virus-vector based technologies, including computational biology over the last three to four decades, some more cutting edge and more precise than others, have been utilized for drug discoveries, diagnostics and vaccine development.
Cost of producing a vaccine
Depending on the type of vaccine developed, like the one the Philippines did for leptospirosis with the use of the whole cell inactivated form of the bacteria, the government spent around P20 million for a two-year proof of concept study, which was purely R&D at the laboratory level, using hamsters, Gloriani explained.
For Covid-19, or viral vaccines, the funding requirements will be a lot more, depending on the technology platform, she said.
Fighting Covid-19 without a vaccine
In the absence of vaccines and specific drugs against Covid-19, the current government community quarantine levels, with all the attendant preventive measures—such as physical distancing, proper hygiene and sanitation, wearing of masks—are best weapons at this time, Gloriani said.
“As a public health professional and medical doctor-scientist, I help draw up research studies to better understand the dynamics of Covid-19 transmission in different risk settings, and in studying in more detail, host immune responses against the virus, helping elucidate the natural course of the infection, for medical and public health interventions.
Educating the public and all possible stakeholders in this fight against an invisible enemy should be part of every knowledgeable person’s advocacy, she noted.
Image credits: AP/Ted S. Warren
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