The pharmaceutical company Janssen Vaccines from Leiden expects to be able to test a possible corona vaccine on people in September. That is earlier than expected, says head of viral vaccines Hanneke Schuitemaker News hour. She heads the team at Janssen that is working on the vaccine.
Does this mean that the corona vaccine will soon come from the Netherlands? That is far from certain. In dozens of places worldwide researchers are trying to develop a corona vaccine.
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Schuitemaker says that he will do everything he can to have a working and safe vaccine as soon as possible. The starting signal was in January, when China came out with the genetic code of the coronavirus, she says. “Then we started thinking about how to build the best piece.”
By ‘piece’ she means a piece of genetic material of the coronavirus. The Janssen researchers put this in genetic material from an innocent cold virus. The piece of corona must ensure that a body starts making antibodies.
“In the past two months, we have looked at what kind of immune response it generates in animals. Normally, that phase lasts two years.”
Janssen has previously applied the cold virus method to an Ebola vaccine and an HIV vaccine. Whether it also works will therefore be tested on people from September. Schuitemaker: “We know very well how people react to it and are therefore very confident that we can now also make a vaccine in this way.”
A stock already
From now on, the Leiden company will produce the material that it will test in people from September. “Parallel to this, we will also start producing vaccines,” says Schuitemaker. “Let’s do that at risk, we don’t know if our vaccine will work. But if it works, we already have a stock. That is our strategy. “
In December, the researchers will hopefully know whether the vaccine gives a good immune response, says Schuitemaker. But there is still no vaccine that can be spread en masse. “That is precisely the job of monks. Ensuring that you can produce well and demonstrate that the vaccine is effective and protects, that is a very long process.” Before a vaccine is widely available, we think it will be about a year and a half later, she thinks.
In the American city of Seattle, people were already injected with a possible vaccine. “There they use a whole new way to quickly assemble a vaccine.” Schuitemaker doesn’t mind that they are leading the way there. The results of the study may also help the Leiden company move forward more quickly. “It’s really against the virus together now. It’s all hands on deck.”
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