Forgot your password?
A 'HOME-MADE' vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus is expected to be in use in Spain by the end of this year, meaning it could be in time for inoculating young adults in low-risk occupations with no key physical health conditions.
The multi-national pharmaceutical company Hipra, based in Amer (Girona province), is working on two different varieties which will be among several developed in Spain – although the Hipra versions are likely to be the first to appear, meaning theirs is 'one of the projects that offers the most hope' in 'guaranteeing Spain's having its own vaccine in a very short space of time', according to the country's president Pedro Sánchez.
He visited the laboratories yesterday (Friday) to find out more.
One of the vaccines under construction at Hipra is an own-brand version, and the other is being developed in conjunction with the IDIBAPS team at Barcelona's Hospital Clínic.
The latter is already one of the World Health Organisation's (WHO's) candidates for pre-clinical trials.
Another three are being created by Spain's National Research Council (CSIC) but are not expected to be ready until well into 2022.
Hipra is, in fact, a veterinary pharmaceutical firm, although how animals react to vaccines is an integral part of the process of developing them for humans; viral vector shots, which include a 'dormant' or deactivated particle of a virus in a 'vector' or carrier, which stimulates the immune system to fight off the real thing, are the type typically given to dogs and cats as babies and then repeated periodically until approximately age 10 and 14 respectively, after which vets differ in their view as to whether or not booster jabs are helpful.
These vaccines offer almost total protection to pets, and cases of a vaccinated dog or cat catching a condition they are immunised against and becoming ill from it are extremely rare, practically anecdotal.
And Hipra is an expert in producing, researching and wholesale distribution of vaccines in pets, with considerable experience in the Coronavirus – a viral group which causes conditions such as the common cold and a strain of which causes Covid-19.
During the worst moments of the pandemic, Hipra offered its help to hospitals in processing PCR test samples and 3D printing of equipment for ventilators and for Covid protection screens, and has also developed its own ELISA antibody test.
The own-brand vaccine, called 'Hipra SARS-CoV-2', injects a re-combining protein designed to maximise safety and induce a powerful neutralising immune system response to the virus.
It is a viral vector version, like the AstraZeneca and Janssen drugs, and is kept at temperatures similar to an ordinary household refrigerator – between 2ºC and 8ºC – making it much easier to store and transport.
The other vaccine, developed in cooperation with the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) at Hospital Clínic and with support from other national and international research organisations, is an RNA-messenger version, like the Pfizer and Moderna inoculations, although unlike these, they do not have to be kept at exceptionally-low temperatures, meaning storage and export will not be such a problem.
Chief researcher Dr Luis García says the RNA-messenger vaccine created in Catalunya has been constructed along slightly different lines to the Pfizer and Moderna immunisations.
“These ones took the complete S-protein, whereas we just took some chunks of it – the bits which generate the greatest immune system response according to computer models,” explains Dr García.
For both the Hipra jabs, the teams have worked on the basis of different vaccination scenarios, of how effective they may be against disparate mutations of the Covid virus, and of the likelihood of repeat doses being needed, probably annually.
Hipra plans to manufacture 400 million doses in the year 2022 alone, and is aiming for 1.2 billion in 2023 – meaning it is likely to have to expand its premises to over three times the current size of 56,000 square metres, adding on another 114,000.
The RNA-messenger vaccine is slightly farther ahead than the vector vaccine, but both are broadly at the pre-clinical phase, meaning testing on humans has not yet started.
If the pre-clinical trials proceed well, it is expected that clinical trials would be able to start in about June, and mass production could begin as early as October this year.
Hipra is working on being able to seek approval from the various regulatory bodies permitting its release by around the end of 2021.
NEW legislation aiming to protect the public from telephone scams and cold-calling is under construction, and will attempt to attack it at source by tightening up on commercial use of customers' personal data.
A HOLLYWOOD legend joining folk-dancers from Asturias and showing off her fancy footwork in the street is not a scene your average Oviedo resident witnesses during his or her weekly shop. Even though their northern...
MASKS will cease to be mandatory in health centres, pharmacies and hospitals after more than three years of being a legal requirement in Spain – although health minister José Miñones has not committed himself to a...
WINNING a Nobel Prize might be the highest form of prestige on earth and the ultimate goal of every artist, scientist or public figurehead – but the next best thing has to be earning Spain's national version, a...