Argentina announced on Wednesday the start of clinical trials of the first nationally manufactured coronavirus vaccine to be used as a booster for people already immunized and with a technology that would allow it to adapt to new variants of the virus.
The “ARVAC Cecilia Grierson” vaccine, financed with public and private funds, received authorization from the National Administration of Medicines, Food and Technology (ANMAT) to carry out a study in which 80 healthy volunteers between 18 and 55 years of age with a Complete previous vaccination.
“Before the end of the year we would be able to serve our population” with the new immunizer, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Daniel Filmus, announced at a press conference.
Once approved, it would also be exported to the rest of Latin America.
There are other nationally manufactured vaccines under investigation, but the ARVAC Cecilia Grierson –in honor of the first woman to graduate as a doctor in Argentina– is the one that has advanced the fastest to clinical trials with humans. The vaccine uses a recombinant protein technology that is already applied in other immunizations against Hepatitis B and the human papillomavirus (HPV). They can be stored between 2 and 8°C, so their costs will be lower than other platforms.
This is part of the so-called second-generation vaccines against COVID with the capacity to respond to different variants of the virus and even to the appearance of new ones, explained the researcher and project leader, Juliana Cassataro.
ARVAC was developed by researchers from the National University of San Martín and the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) in conjunction with the local Cassará laboratory. Some $600,000 has been invested in the project so far.
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