There were two Indonesians involved in the making coronavirus vaccine Oxford/AstraZeneca. They are Indra Rudiansyah and Carina Citra Dewi Joe.
Indra is a doctoral candidate aka PhD and a researcher at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, England. Whereas Carina is a development researcher vaccine at the same institution and university.
Thousands of people are actually involved in the manufacture of the AstraZeneca vaccine, especially during clinical trials one to three. “Indeed, there are a lot of teams at Oxford University, up to hundreds of teams working in clinics,” said Indra during a special interview with Katadata.co.id, Friday (30/7).
In addition to clinical trials, researchers are also faced with a manufacturing process that is no less complicated. AstraZeneca vaccine technology, namely viral vectors or viral vector, had never been mass-produced before. Everything they do in a relatively short time because the corona pandemic has infected millions of people.
For an hour, they share stories of developing a vaccine Covid-19 the. What’s the story like? Check out the results of the interview below.
How early was your involvement in the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine?
Indra: I signed up to help with the Oxford vaccine clinical trial. Later, I assisted in the evaluation of the antibody response in the volunteers. But actually my main research is the malaria vaccine.
Means switch or move to Covid-19 vaccine development?
Indra: Actually I don’t switch. I continued my PhD in malaria vaccines. During the pandemic, all facilities were closed. So, all PhD students, all postdoctoral, employees who work on other projects, can not work in the laboratory.
Facilities opened for priority programs, such as the development of a Covid-19 vaccine. At the time of clinical trials, they need a lot of human resources. If I’m not mistaken, it was March (2020), the team (Oxford) started recruiting a lot of people, including students like me.
So actually a lot of students are involved in clinical trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine. When lockdown, March to September, for six months I helped clinical trials of the vaccine in the laboratory. As August restrictions began to loosen, I slowly returned to the malaria vaccine.
How many people are there in Mas Indra’s team?
Indra: Quite a lot because clinical trial must be done quickly. Amount volunteermany, up to tens of thousands. So, indeed the team is very large at Oxford University, with hundreds of teams working in clinics. Not again clinical trial for multi side and multi countries. It’s in Brazil, England and South Africa.
Ms. Carina, how did you get involved in the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine?
Carina: I was originally recruited for the rabies vaccine manufacturing process. I joined a few months before the pandemic, at the end of 2019. When there was a pandemic, they decided to make a Covid-19 vaccine because the priority was high and it was needed as soon as possible. So, my project was changed to a Covid-19 vaccine.
Does that mean you are also developing in the manufacturing?
Carina: Yes, for the process of mass-producing vaccines. If only having one vaccine is not effective, it is useless because not many people are using it. Vaccines are useful if many people use them, the name is herd immunity (herd immunity).
Manufacturing it is important that people who get the vaccine not only in the UK, but also in low-income countries can get it. The manufacturing process is quite long. There is upstream and downstream.
In short, we use human cell (human cells) to produce viruses in them. The scale is different. There are laboratories with a scale of 10 to 15 liters. There are large scale, 200 liters, a thousand liters, 2 thousand liters, and 4 thousand liters. After getting enough virus in the cells, then we harvest. The virus must be removed from the cell, separated, and purified.
How many countries do the vaccine manufacturing process?
Carina: We do it in 23 laboratories around the world. About 12 countries.
Is there a possibility of developing to other countries, besides the 12 countries, for example Indonesia?
Carina: There is. There seems to be talk. But there must be a proposal and procedure.
Indra: There are procedures to be passed because technology transfer is not an easy process.
Carina: The process is not like making a cake. There are specifications for the laboratory and its facilities. Second, skill (skills) special. Due to the pandemic, we actually don’t have much time. Within 1.5 months, there must be large-scale manufacturing of the vaccine, 200 liters. In fact, this process has never happened before.
The large-scale development is so that there is a transfer to the joining consortium. So, the time is quite tight. and in genre this isn’t much skill for manufacturing. If the clinical trial team can recruit people working on other vaccine projects, mine is a bit difficult.
In the beginning, I did it myself. While the time is not much. So, even though I recruited from students postdoctoral, they also need proper training. They keep taking instructions from me.
Some of the public only know that making a vaccine takes a long time. When the Covid-19 pandemic occurred, it turned out that it could be done in less than a year?
Carina: There is a concept that is misunderstood. Vaccine technology (viral vector or viral vector) this has been around for years. How much since two thousand, Ndra?
Indra: If it’s from the adenovirus since the 1990s. But for ChAdOx (chimpanzee vector adenovirus vaccine) from 2013 I think yes.
Carina: So the basic technology has been in development for years, decades. Platformits like plug and play so it can be modified quickly. The technology already exists and has been tested with other pathogens and we believe it is safe and effective.
What exactly is AstraZeneca’s specialty with such technology and what sets it apart from other vaccines?
Indra: Not only AstraZeneca uses this technology, but also Johnson & Johnson and CanSino Biologic. They both use vector adenovirus.
If the specialty of Oxford, we use adenovirus that comes from chimpanzees. Why? Most humans currently have antibodies that can neutralize these vectors so that the vaccine is less effective. Therefore, using adenovirus from chimpanzees.
The development challenges?
Indra: Maybe it’s because the adenovirus has never been mass-used, so there’s very little production data. It’s a challenge for Carina how to produce this adenovirus on a large scale.
Never before has a vaccine been mass-produced using this adenovirus technology. Production data is still very limited.
Regarding vaccine efficacy, with so many new variants of Covid-19, many people ask how effective is the vaccine against the new variant?
Indra: Yes, it is true that new variants are emerging concern we. Many studies in the laboratory to see whether the antibodies produced are able to neutralize or not.
So far these variants can still be neutralized even though there is some kind of compensation or reduction in some variants. But all of them, in general, still have the capacity to neutralize the virus.
So, will there be development for the vaccine?
Carina: There is a difference in the efficacy of those derived from placebo or those who have been vaccinated with real world data. According to current data, this vaccine prevents severe illness and death. From the data in the UK and Canada, it still states an effective vaccine. The numbers are enough to protect the community. They (the company) haven’t suggested using booster because I see this vaccine is still effective.
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