Journalists from The Guardian conducted an analysis that could reveal how and why these complex processes could be carried out at such speed.
Traditionally, the process is slow. Prior to COVID-19, a new vaccine took an average of about 10 years to fully develop, and the process was never completed in less than five years.
So how did we manage to develop COVID-19 vaccines in less than a year?
A crucial aspect is funding, with public and private funds being pumped into the race to obtain a vaccine against the new coronavirus, thus setting aside the usual financial problems affecting pharmaceutical companies. Moreover, demand and necessity are extremely high.
Vaccines are usually developed by weakening or destroying the virus, or by producing part of the virus under laboratory conditions. However, this process takes a long time.
Instead, the vaccines at Oxford University / AstraZeneca and Pfizer / BioNTech have been developed using various “platform technologies” that involve framing the genetic material from the virus in an already tested delivery package. Once introduced into the human body, this genetic material is used by the protein-producing machinery in our cells to produce the “S protein (Spike)” of the virus, thus triggering an immune response.
Technologies that have been developing in the last two decades
This strategy was also helped by the speed with which Chinese scientists identified and distributed the genetic sequence of the new coronavirus, as well as by research on other coronaviruses that were already in full swing.
“The mRNA platform technology used by the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine has been in development for over 20 years,” said Dr. Zoltán Kis of Imperial College London.
Another aspect is that while the traditional development of vaccines requires clinical trials to be conducted in a certain order, in this case the clinical trials overlapped, so the process was much faster.
At the same time, technological advances have simplified data measurements, while online social networks have made it easier to recruit participants to these clinical trials. However, they would not have been possible without the burning desire of the majority of the public to help the scientific community, The Guardian points out.
What about approval?
Dr. Penny Ward, a professor of pharmaceutical medicine, explained that it usually takes about six to nine months for new drugs to receive approval. However, this is largely due to the fact that all data from studies are sent simultaneously to regulatory institutions.
In the case of vaccines against COVID-19, the process was accelerated by the fact that the information was sent to the authorities as it was obtained.
How did the UK manage to approve the vaccine before Europe and the United States?
Although there were discussions that Brexit would have favored the rapid approval of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine by the British Medicines Agency (MHRA), experts said that European Union laws allowed Member States to approve medicines for emergency use without authorization. from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
However, Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmaco-epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, explained that the Brexit transition period meant that the MHRA currently had additional capacity.
“We are going through this slightly strange period, we did not have to start the work we will do from January 1, but we do not carry out the usual projects for EMA,” said Evans.
However, there were probably other factors that influenced the process. “For a product to be approved by the EMA, EU states must agree on the terms of its use,” said Dr. Penny Ward, a professor of pharmaceutical medicine.
Another possibility is that Europe would like to wait until it finds out what the variations are between batches of vaccines.
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