- A vaccine authorized in December for use in India may help solve one of the most vexing problems in global public health: How to supply lower-income countries with a COVID-19 vaccine that is safe, effective and affordable.
- Well, we knew that this was a great philanthropic environment.
- Hotez says that unlike the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, and the viral vector vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, protein subunit vaccines like CORBEVAX have a track record.
A vaccination approved for use in India in December may help to solve one of the most perplexing issues in global public health: how to provide a COVID-19 vaccine that is safe, effective, and affordable to low-income countries as reported by NPR.
Vaccine technology
The vaccine is called CORBEVAX.
It uses old but proven vaccine technology and can be manufactured far more easily than most, if not all, of the COVID-19 vaccines in use today.
“CORBEVAX is a game-changer,” says Dr Keith Martin, executive director of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health in Washington, D.C. “It’s going to enable countries around the world, particularly low-income countries, to be able to produce these vaccines and distribute them in a way that’s going to be affordable, effective and safe.”
The story of CORBEVAX begins some two decades ago.
When a strain of coronavirus known as SARS broke out in 2003, they decided to tackle that disease.
This involves using proteins from a virus or bacterium that can induce an immune response but not cause disease.
New strain
“It’s the same technology as the hepatitis B vaccine that’s been around for decades,” Hotez says.
No evidence of disease, no need for a vaccine.
When a new strain of coronavirus triggered the COVID-19 pandemic, Hotez and Bottazzi figured they could dust off their old technology and modify it for use against COVID-19.
“People were so fixated on innovation that nobody thought, ‘Hey, maybe we could use a low-cost, durable, easy-breezy vaccine that can vaccinate the whole world,’ “ Hotez says.
So they turned to private philanthropies.
A major donor early on was the JPB Foundation in New York.
Philanthropic environment
“The rest were all Texas philanthropies: the Kleberg Foundation, the [John S.] Dunn Foundation, Tito’s Vodka,” Hotez says.
The MD Anderson Foundation also chipped in.
Well, we knew that this was a great philanthropic environment.
So he and Bottazzi were relatively certain CORBEVAX would be safe and effective.
“You’re not going to get less expensive than that.”
Clinical trials showed they were right to be confident CORBEVAX would work.
But CORBEVAX is already entering the real world.
An Indian vaccine manufacturer called Biological E Ltd is now making the vaccine.
“The real beauty of the CORBEVAX vaccine that Drs.
Hotez and Bottazzi created is that intellectual property of this vaccine will be available to everybody,” Keith Martin says.
Difficult choices
By contrast, the makers of Pfizer and Moderna, for example, are not sharing their recipes.
That forces public health officials to make difficult choices.
Of course, the ideal vaccine would have both qualities, and Hotez is at work trying to develop technologies that can do that.
“There’s no issue with pushing innovation,” he says.
“The problem was it wasn’t balanced with a portfolio or oldies but goodies.”
Hotez is hoping his oldie but goodie will usher in a brighter future for the world.
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Source: NPR
