[ad_1]
The North American pharmaceutical company Pfizer intends to make its future vaccine against Covid-19 available at lower prices for countries with less economic capacity, which may have an impact on prices for the Brazilian government.
The price difference “helps ensure fairness so that all countries can have access to our vaccine,” according to a note from the company.
According to Reuters, there will be three different prices for the vaccine: one for developed countries, one for developing countries (such as Brazil), and a third for poorer countries.
The BNT162 vaccine, being developed by Pfizer and the German company BioNTech, is based on stretches of RNA (DNA “molecule”) that make up the genetic material of the virus.
The viral RNA in the vaccine contains the recipe for producing the so-called protein S (“spike” or spike, the molecular hook used by Sars-CoV-2 to connect to human cells). Once inside cells, it is hoped that this piece of RNA will be used to initiate the production of protein S, which, in turn, will trigger a defense reaction in the body. When the body comes into contact with the real virus, the hope is that it already has antibodies ready to fight it.
Everything indicates that the technique is relatively safe, but its effectiveness remains to be demonstrated; To date, no RNA vaccine has been released for commercial use.
In Brazil, the vaccines that are in the last phase of testing, with different techniques and approaches, are those of Pfizer / BioNTech, Sinovac, Oxford University / AstraZeneca and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson).
In the case of Coronavac, Chinese Sinovac and the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, there is already a technology transfer contract for production in Brazil by the Butantan Institute and Fiocruz, respectively.
In a note, Pfizer says that it is already in contact with the Brazilian government to address a possible acquisition of the immunization, if the positive results of the ongoing investigation are confirmed.
The pharmaceutical vaccine showed more than 90% effectiveness in the preliminary analysis of phase 3 tests (the last one before approval), as revealed by the company itself on Monday (9). The results remain partial and do not correspond to the conclusion of the clinical trial.
In earlier phases of the study, the vaccine, administered in two doses, stimulated high antibody production after 28 days of application.
One of the aspects that can hinder the distribution of the vaccine in Brazil is the temperature at which it must be maintained. According to the company, the immunization should be stored at -75 ° C. To get around this, the company says it has developed a temperature-controlled container that will use dry ice so that the vaccine remains at -75 ° C for up to 15 days.
