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Professor Ugur Sahin, the scientist who led the development of the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine, gives an interview to the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
The impact of covid-19 vaccines will grow rapidly in mid-2021, and life is expected to return to normal until next winter in the Northern Hemisphere, late next year. The screening is made by one of the creators of one of the most promising vaccine candidates against the new coronavirus.
Ugur Sahin, co-founder of the German company BioNTech, also said that the immunizer created by his company in partnership with Pfizer can also prevent infections, resulting in a “drastic reduction in cases.”
Last week, BioNTech and Pfizer announced that preliminary results of the vaccine could prevent more than 90% of people from becoming infected with COVID-19.
About 43 thousand people are part of the vaccine studies of the two companies, which are still ongoing. The immunizer has not yet received authorization for distribution in any country.
In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Sahin said that he hoped that a more detailed analysis of the results of this BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine would show both a reduction in the transmission of the virus between people and a block to the development of symptoms by part of the infected.
“I am very confident that human-to-human transmission will be reduced with such an effective vaccine. Perhaps not by 90%, but perhaps by 50%. We must not, however, forget that even this can result in a dramatic reduction in spread of the pandemic, “he added. said.
The UK is expected to receive 10 million doses of the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine by the end of 2020, with an additional 30 million doses already requested. The immunizer, which has been tested in six countries, is given in two doses, three weeks apart.
After the announcement of the world’s first effective vaccine last week, John Bell, a professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, suggested that life could return to normal in the spring.
“I’m probably the first to say that, but I’ll say it with some confidence,” Bell said.
For Sahin, who is a professor at the University of Mainz, this should take longer.
If all goes well, he said, the vaccine would begin delivery at the end of this year, early next year.
Sahin said the current goal is to deliver more than 300 million doses worldwide by April 2021, which “could allow us to start having an impact.”
He said the biggest shock would come later. “Summer will help us because the infection rate will decrease, and what is absolutely essential is that we have a high vaccination rate before fall / winter 2021.”
Sahin said it is essential that all immunization programs are completed before next fall, which begins in September 2021 in the Northern Hemisphere.
There are also doubts about its possible distribution in Brazil.
In July, the National Sanitary Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) announced the completion of the phase 3 clinical study of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in the country. But so far there are no formal talks between the two companies and the federal government.
Pharmaceutical companies also began negotiating directly with state governments. If these negotiations are successful (and, of course, the vaccine is approved), the first doses would only eventually arrive in Brazil from the first months of 2021. Deliveries in 2020 are already destined for other parts of the world.
Efficacy in the elderly is still uncertain
When asked if the vaccine was as effective in older people as in younger people, he said it could give a more precise answer with information that will emerge in the next three weeks.
Sahin said it is not yet known how long immunity lasts after the second dose of the vaccine is given. However, he said, a booster shot “shouldn’t be too complicated” if immunity is found to have decreased significantly after a year.
According to him, the “main side effects” of the vaccine recorded so far were mild or moderate pain at the injection site for a few days, while some participants also had mild to moderate fever for a few days.
“We did not see any other serious side effects that could result in the pause or interruption of the study.”
The BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine is one of 11 currently in the final testing phase.
Credit, Reuters
More than 170 covid-19 vaccine candidates are being developed
And its use will not be released until it passes the safety analysis and receives approval from agencies such as the Regulatory Agency for Medicines and Health Products (MHRA), in the United Kingdom, and the Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), in Brazil. .
The British government intends, if this vaccine is approved, to begin distribution from December. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people not to relax measures of social detachment. According to him, the development of the vaccine “has overcome a great obstacle, but several others remain to be eliminated.”
Another concern is the effectiveness of vaccines against possible mutations in the coronavirus. That fear gained momentum after 12 people were identified with a strain of the mink-related virus after an outbreak in Denmark.
For virology professor Wendy Barclay, scientific adviser to the British government, there is a “concern” that the vaccines that are currently being developed “do not work as well because the virus continues to evolve.”
Hope without exaggeration: analysis, by Michelle Roberts, BBC News health editor
The BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine gave a huge boost to confidence that the end of the pandemic is near, leading the scientist who led its development to estimate that life could return to normal next winter.
But there are still great doubts.
The vaccine needs approval from regulatory bodies, and this will only happen if they are satisfied with the safety and efficacy data. Preliminary data looks great, but final results need to be awaited in the coming weeks.
There is still not enough data to conclude how well this vaccine works in those who need it most: the elderly. Not even if they prevent people from getting the virus.
If there is such approval, it will still take time to immunize and protect enough people.
Other covid-19 vaccines can show up and work, working together, just as well or even better than this immunizer from BioNTech / Pfizer.
The love story that led to BioNTech
The positive results of the covid-19 vaccine have become an unexpected success for the couple of Turkish immigrant children behind the Germany-based biotech company that has dedicated its life to protecting the immune system against cancer.
From humble roots, the son of a Turkish immigrant who worked at a Ford factory in Cologne would, years later, become the CEO of BioNTech. Now 55, Ugur Sahin is among the 100 richest Germans, along with his wife and colleague Öezlem Türeci, 53, the daughter of a Turkish doctor.
For the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel, the couple’s success was a “balm for the soul” for Germans with Turkish roots after decades of being stereotyped in Germany as “inexperienced fruit growers.”
Germany has a large community of Turkish origin, but these immigrants or descendants are often subject to prejudice.
Credit, divulge
Ugur Sahin and Öezlem Türeci, founder couple of BioNTech
Sahin and Türeci are the children of workers who emigrated to Germany as part of the first generation of Turkish immigrants invited by the country, in a program known as Gastarbeiter.
Stubbornly pursuing his childhood dream of studying medicine and becoming a doctor, Ugur Sahin (or Uğur Şahin, in the Turkish alphabet) graduated in 1990 and worked in university hospitals in Cologne and in the university city of Homburg in southwestern Germany. , where he met Türeci during the beginning of his academic career.
Medical research and oncology have become a common passion.
Türeci, the daughter of a Turkish doctor who had emigrated to Germany before she was born, said in an interview with local media that, even on their wedding day, they both found time to work in the laboratory.
Together, they specialized in studies of the immune system as a potential ally in the fight against cancer and tried to deal with the unique genetic makeup of each tumor.
Life as an entrepreneur began in 2001 and BioNTech was founded in 2008.
The BioNTech story took a turn when Sahin found a scientific paper in January 2020 about a new coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan. In that moment, he realized how close the gap was between mRNA anticancer drugs and mRNA-based viral vaccines.
BioNTech quickly assigned about 500 employees to design various possible compounds at “speed of light.” The initiative attracted US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Chinese pharmaceutical company Fosun as partners shortly thereafter, in March.
“Our new task is to defeat this virus. That is a humanitarian duty,” Sahin told his team, according to the British newspaper The Telegraph.
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