This New Vaccine Could Be A Pandemic Game-Changer
The new CORBEVAX vaccine was produced without significant public funding; the needed for development was provided by philanthropists.
The world now has a new Covid-19 vaccine in its arsenal, and at a fraction of the cost per dose.
Two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has seen . Approximately has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. But there is still a glaring and alarming gap in global access to these vaccines. As a who has followed this pandemic closely, I contend that this vaccine inequity should be of grave concern to everyone.
If the world has learned anything from this pandemic, it’s that viruses do not need a passport. And yet approximately 72% of vaccine doses were administered in high- and upper-middle-income countries – and . are giving boosters, and even fourth doses, while first and second doses are not available to many worldwide.
But there is hope that a new vaccine called will help close this vaccination gap.
How Does The CORBEVAX Vaccine Work?
All teach the immune system how to recognize the virus and prepare the body to mount an attack. The is a . It uses a harmless piece of the spike protein from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 to stimulate and prepare the immune system for future encounters with the virus.
Unlike the three vaccines approved in the U.S. – and , which provide the body instructions on how to produce the spike protein – CORBEVAX delivers the spike protein to the body directly. Like those other approved COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, CORBEVAX also requires .
How Was CORBEVAX Developed?
CORBEVAX was developed by the co-directors of the at Baylor College of Medicine, Drs. and .
During the , these researchers created a similar type of vaccine by inserting the genetic information for a portion of the SARS virus spike protein into yeast to produce large amounts of the protein. After isolating the virus spike protein from the yeast and adding an , which helps trigger an immune response, the vaccine was ready for use.
The first SARS epidemic was short-lived, and there was little need for Bottazzi and Hotez’s vaccine – until the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, emerged in 2019. So they dusted off their vaccine and updated the spike protein to match that of SARS-CoV-2, creating the .
A large U.S.-based clinical trial found the vaccine to be at preventing symptomatic infections. The vaccine received in India, and other developing countries are expected to follow.
Interestingly, the group at Baylor was for their vaccine. Instead, newer technologies such as mRNA vaccines raced ahead, even though Bottazzi and Hotez’s vaccine design was more advanced, thanks to their .
A Vaccine Built For The World
Protein subunit vaccines have an advantage over mRNA vaccines in that they can be readily produced using well-established that is relatively inexpensive and fairly easy to scale up. A similar protein recombinant technology that’s been around for 40 years has been used for the , which is , and the .
This vaccine can be produced at a much larger scale because . Also key to global access is that CORBEVAX can be . Therefore, it is possible to produce millions of doses rapidly and distribute them relatively easily. In comparison, is more expensive and complicated because they are based on newer technologies, rely on highly skilled workers and often require for storage and transport.
Another major difference is that the CORBEVAX vaccine was developed with . The goal was to make a low-cost, easy-to-produce-and-transport vaccine using a well-tested and safe method. Key to this, the researchers were . The vaccine was produced without significant public funding; the needed for development was provided by philanthropists.
Interestingly, the group at Baylor was not able to drum up interest or funding in the U.S. for their vaccine.
COBREVAX is currently to Biological E. Limited (BioE), India’s largest vaccine maker, which plans to manufacture . This patent-free arrangement means that other low- and middle-income countries can produce and distribute this cheap, stable and relatively easy-to-scale vaccine locally.
Combined, this means that CORBEVAX is . How well it works against the is under investigation. However, the CORBEVAX story can be to address vaccine inequity when it is necessary to vaccinate the world population – against COVID-19 and other diseases on the horizon.
The Necessity Of Vaccine Equity
There are many reasons . For example, the governments of wealthy nations purchase vaccines in advance, which limits supply. While developing countries do have vaccine production capacity, low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America still need to be able to afford the cost of placing orders.
The Indian government has ordered for people in developing countries. For context, the U.S. and other G7 nations have pledged to donate . These numbers mean that if BioE is able to produce 1.3 billion doses of CORBEVAX as planned, this vaccine will .
As the has shown, new variants can spread across the world quickly and are much more likely to and as long as global vaccination rates remain low. It is will end this pandemic. Rather, developing globally accessible vaccines like CORBEVAX represent an important first step in vaccinating the world and ending this pandemic.
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