The fact that the corona vaccine could be ready so quickly is because it is now possible to carry out the various development phases in parallel instead of one after the other.
“In the classic development of medicines and vaccines, every phase must be completed before a new phase can be started,” said Eeckhout. “That is different now, given the pandemic and the urgent need. Now the different development phases can be started in parallel and there is also an expert team to provide advice when obstacles arise.”
There are currently more than 200 studies on a corona vaccine worldwide, 8 of which are already in the final stages of large-scale human studies.
However, this rapid development can go hand in hand with the same quality requirements as otherwise, and no concessions are made. “No flexibility is allowed, not for the evaluation of quality, safety and efficacy,” said Eeckhout. “Those requirements will certainly remain the same, it’s just a different approach to the process.”
The vaccine that the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZenica and the University of Oxford are currently testing has already been agreed with the European Union for the delivery of vaccines to our country.
In the first phase, it concerns 1.2 to 1.5 million vaccines intended for risk groups in our country. This concerns health care workers, all Belgians over 65 years old and patients between 45 and 65 years old with certain chronic diseases such as high blood pressure or diabetes or serious disorders of the liver, kidneys or heart. In total, 4 million people belong to the risk groups in our country, and negotiations are also ongoing with other producers.
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