The University of the Republic (Udelar) completed the executive study to build a National Vaccine Institute, focused on human and animal health . The initiative began in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, obtained resources in Parliament for its study and has now landed in a preliminary draft with details for its implementation.
The survey, presented to the Executive Branch on Monday and which will be announced tomorrow at a conference, provides for an investment of US$25 million, which could be extended to US$30 million in the event of unforeseen events, the dean of the Faculty of Chemistry told El País Álvaro Mombrú, project coordinator.
The rector of Udelar, Rodrigo Arim, raised in May 2021 the need to create this institute. Mombrú took over and began to have meetings with 15 researchers from Udelar, the Pasteur Institute, INIA and the Clemente Estable, which lasted until June of that year. Then, in the 2021 Accountability, $7 million was allocated to advance this bill.
From 2022 to this part, there were two reports that exceed 200 pages. This is a pre-feasibility economic feasibility study and another with technical details, which include even which openings would be used in the “Biotechnological Products Plant”.
The plan calls for the construction of a 3,000 m2, two-story plant, which would take 24 and 36 months, with specialized equipment to manufacture high-cost vaccines and biological medicines.
The institute could manufacture, for example, messenger RNA vaccines -such as Pfizer’s anticovid-, because it is a technology that does not require such high levels of biosecurity as with other doses, which also mean investing more money. The plant has biosafety levels equal to or less than two, on a scale of four levels.
The project did not determine a specific location for the institute or what its governance would be like, which would not necessarily be headed by Udelar, although it would be part of its board of directors.
Vaccination against Covid19 in the vaccination center of the Santa Lucia Auxiliary Center to combat the Sars Cov 2 coronavirus pandemic in Uruguay, department of Canelones, ND 20210506, photo Leonardo Maine – El Pais Archive, vaccination campaign against covid 19, coronavirus, staff of health applies dose of vaccine
Leonardo Maine/El Pais Archive
The legal figure of the institute will also be analyzed in this next stage and what would be the association with the potential national and international laboratories interested in producing in this new plant.
Mombrú added that the pandemic was the “trigger, without any doubt”, to advance this project, which “gives us sovereignty” in the face of a health emergency. For example, he explained, in the face of another pandemic, up to 3.5 million doses could be produced here if a laboratory decides to transfer its patented technology to supply this market or others.
“The project involves appropriating technology that allows rapid adaptation to health challenges that arise,” which allows “sovereign knowledge and its proper application to defend against future situations that may cause another health emergency,” the study indicated.
The institute would have a research area involving several specialists. In addition, in the development and production phases “specific vaccines of local or strategic value may be produced or those that are considered important and whose license is obtained,” the report stated.
The truth is that in this institute, not only the production of vaccines is foreseen, but also high-cost biological medicines. This sector, of “high added value”, demands “qualified” human resources, with “above” average salaries and that generate large “exports”. Mombrú added that foreign sales of these products can “provide very important foreign currency to the country.”
In the case of animal health, the new plant could produce vaccines or immunotherapies to combat infectious and parasitic diseases that “affect national production.”
With the institute, before obtaining imported doses, “it will be possible to have confidence in their effectiveness and safety by having an institute with full capacity to evaluate their quality,” the report added.
In this way, Uruguay could resume the national production of vaccines that was developed until the 1980s. Mombrú explained that at that time it was decided not to invest in more complex technology, but given the “popularization” of the technique and the irruption of the pandemic, this possibility was reconsidered.
“We are not talking about 10 or 12 years for it to work,” said Mombrú. In the event that the Executive Power gives the green light, it would be working “by 2028” or “even earlier,” added the dean of the Faculty of Chemistry.
The immunologist Alejandro Chabalgoity stated two years ago that Canada, South Africa, Australia and other countries were looking to set up these institutes. “One of the lessons learned is that the countries with the greatest possibilities achieve better management of situations such as the one experienced in the pandemic,” the draft stated.
Udelar initiative is seen with “very good eyes” from the government
The dean of the Faculty of Chemistry, of the University of the Republic (Udelar) remarked that the National Vaccine Institute “is a country project, it is not only of the university.” He visualized that the plan “is all profit” and said that it is planned to build after an investment of about US $ 25 million.
Mombrú met this Monday with the Executive Power and assured El País that in the meeting they saw “with very good eyes, fortunately”, progress in the project, which is not part of the Accountability, but would imply an extra budget .
“The report is very solid and opens up prospects for the future with a production of very high added value, so it has a lot of growth potential,” said the dean.
The former Minister of Public Health, Daniel Salinas, had stated in 2021 that he was “very much in agreement” with moving forward with this project. The Canarian mayor, Yamandú Orsi, meanwhile, spoke in April of that year with President Luis Lacalle Pou about the need to produce vaccines in Uruguay.
Laboratory
Asked if some laboratories have already raised their interest in participating in this initiative, Mombrú replied that they were consulted and that “they all showed a very positive outlook”. He pointed out that “they suggested that an infrastructure of these characteristics could be very beneficial to promote work areas where today, due to current conditions, they are restricted.”
The dean pointed out that the drugs use “technologies very similar to vaccines.” Mombrú estimated that if the new body is created “there will be a very interesting interaction between different laboratories and the institute.”
2023-08-09 11:26:15
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