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Every weekend, Behind the numbers decrypts the pandemic data, behind which questions and answers are hidden. This Friday, the figure we chose with the epidemiologist Marius Gilbert is 336. Why?
On February 4, 2020, Belgium experienced its first case of COVID-19. A so-called “imported” case. He was an asymptomatic man, L ‘one of nine Belgian travelers repatriated on 1st February from the Chinese province of Hubei. On January 5, 2021, less than a year later, Belgium is expected to administer its first vaccines to priority people. Fast COVID vaccine, how is it possible?
Everything (or almost everything) is in the genome
A critical first step was taken very quickly when scientists sequenced the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
In Europe, the French Pasteur Institute has been sequencing it in full since January 29, 2020, even before the arrival of our first Belgian patient.
But since the weekend of January 11 and 12, Chinese authorities have been sharing with the scientific community the complete sequence of the coronavirus genome they detected in the samples taken from their first patients. From this identification, there was “only” to use existing vaccination techniques.
A well-developed arsenal
These techniques were already well developed. Messenger RNA, the breakthrough technology used by Pfizer and Moderna in their COVID-19 vaccines, is also a method already in use in animals. On several occasions it has been integrated into advanced human clinical trials for Zika viruses, Chikungunya, CMV or for cancer treatment. The method was ready.
Similarly, other vaccination techniques such as those using a viral vector (the AstraZeneca vaccine uses it) had been in development for a long time.
New resources
An avalanche of funds made it possible to proceed very quickly. It is estimated that it takes around one billion euros to develop a vaccine (from clinical development to building a factory).
In the case of COVID-19, several billion have already been injected by various states and public or private organizations. The United States has thus released 11 billion dollars for the “Warp speed” operation of research, development and purchase of vaccine doses.
The United States positioned itself very early in terms of funding, in particular through the Warp Speed operation, wanted by Donald Trump. The country has financed up to 11 billion dollars for the two components, that of research and development, and the purchase of doses.
Huge cohorts of volunteers
Phase III clinical trials have mobilized an unprecedented number of volunteers. With the help of the pandemic, nearly 100,000 patients were easily enrolled in the final studies of the major vaccines planned here:
– Pfizer-BioNtech (vaccine with RNA technique): 43,661 participants. For comparison, previous studies of RNA vaccines for Zika, Chikunguny or CMV viruses have been conducted in patient groups ranging from 30 to 452 people.
– Modern (idem): 30,000 participants
– Oxford-AstraZeneca (adenovirus viral vector vaccine): 23,000 participants
Real-time evaluation
It usually takes 8-10 years to develop a vaccine and bring it to market. A whole series of administrative documents ends up in the offices of the licensing bodies (European Medicines Agency, FAMHP in Belgium).
For COVID-19, necessity prevailed. An accelerated procedure made it possible to prepare each phase of the vaccine trials without waiting for the complete closure of the previous phase. The European Medicines Agency has just received two marketing authorization applications for Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna vaccines. It will only take a few weeks to give its opinion because it has already reviewed all available data through this ongoing review process.
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