Vicente Larraga is one of the leading experts in Spain in the development of vaccines. She works at the Margarita Salas Biological Research Center (CIB-CSIC), which is developing one of the Spanish vaccines against the coronavirus, which it plans to finish, if all goes well, by the end of this year. In an interview in El País, has detailed the advances of the Spanish serum.
Asked about the progress of the vaccine that his department is developing, Larraga confirms that everything follows the “planned schedule.” “We want to be finishing phase III by the end of the year. We are now finishing the preclinical phase. We have to show that in animal models we induce protection ”, he comments.
The rehearsals will not be in Spain
Regarding the essays, details that They will not be in Spain, because there will already be many people vaccinated when they start: “We will have to look in countries in Africa, Latin America or Southeast Asia, where the virus is still circulating and there are many unvaccinated people.” Larraga affirms that the Spanish vaccine is not late, despite the fact that other doses are already being inoculated: “With vaccines it is difficult to be late, because diseases do not end. The epidemic is ended, but not the disease. If the new vaccines have better conditions, whether of distribution, efficacy or side effects, they will be useful and will probably end up imposing on the first ones “, Explain.
The “distribution”, differential element of the vaccine
In this sense, it indicates what can you contribute differently a vaccine like the one you’re working on: “The distribution. As it is a DNA vaccine, it can withstand at room temperature for a time. At most, you need a normal fridge. And this can be very useful because surely we will have to be living with vaccinations for at least two or three years ”.
The stoppage of the Janssen vaccine
The CSIC researcher, in the aforementioned interview, has also referred to the stoppage of administration of Janssen vaccine in the United States what has caused the company stopped deliveries in Europe. According to Larraga, it is necessary to “investigate” because “a repetition with two similar vaccines cannot be a coincidence”. However, he believes that he is “overreacting” with the stoppage: “The precautionary principle is very good and you have to use it, but it is a balance, it cannot lead to immobility.”
Therefore, the expert is committed to continuing to vaccinate: “It is much more dangerous not to get vaccinated. I don’t think there is enough time for a scientific explanation to thrombi to be found “, he indicates, although he does clarify that “it should be investigated to find an association with any condition or characteristics of the patients who have suffered them.”
The second dose of AstraZeneca
Regarding the provision of the second dose to people already vaccinated with AstraZeneca, Larraga believes that “there should be no great difficulty in using another type of vaccine”, but warns that for scientists it would be “hard” because “it has not been proven previously”. Add, yes, that If the person already inoculated with the serum from the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company is not afraid, the second dose should also be given. “There is no problem,” he adds.
“The vaccine will save your life”
Finally, Larraga has commented on the “excess of information” that exists around vaccines, which causes confusion in the population. “There is an excess of visibility. Many times it does not reflect the real danger of a drug. There are much more dangerous and people take them with a relish that they need to get wet “, he assures, to finish by listing the benefits of the vaccine: “They are going to put something on people that is going to save their lives, they are not going to go to a hospital or go to the ICU.”
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