A 'HOME-MADE' Covid vaccine that works along the same lines as the Pfizer and Moderna inoculations is a step closer to completion and should be ready for use by next year.
Dr Felipe García, researcher at Barcelona's IDIBAPS-Hospital Clínic, leads the team, which is split across various medical centres and laboratories in the city and also in Madrid, Santiago de Compostela (Galicia) and the Belgian capital, Brussels.
Once on the market, it will be the first Spanish-made RNA-messenger vaccine against Covid-19.
The RNA-messenger method is used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are currently being administered across Europe – as opposed to the virus vector method used in the AstraZeneca, or 'Oxford' vaccine.
But Spain's version 'has some subtle differences', says Dr García – being slightly farther behind the others already in use, the team has been able to take advantage of research previously carried out and build on it with their own.
“We've designed it in a different way – the Pfizer and Moderna developers took the whole 'S' protein, whilst we just took certain sections of it; this improves immune response, as it's based upon a computer model,” Dr García explains.
“In terms of its effectiveness, it should be about the same, or perhaps even last longer, but it's early days to be able to tell as yet.
“We're also looking into ways that it could be stored without needing refrigeration at exceptionally low temperatures, as is the case with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.”
Development and research started in May 2020, and 'some positive results' are now filtering through, but the team is waiting to be able to finish its testing on animals so it can evaluate findings from this phase and then start clinical trials, on humans.
Clinical trials are hoped to take place over the course of 2021, meaning distribution of the final vaccine is unlikely until 2022.
“That's what we hope, but in the field of vaccines and with the tools and resources we have at our disposal, it's hard to predict how things are going to go,” admits Dr García.
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