Manufacture a vaccine in the country: rector of the University of Chile proposes to create a production center in the Laguna Carén Academic Project

There was a time, not too long ago, when Chile produced its own vaccines. 20 years ago, the Institute of Public Health (ISP) had a production center, which he abandoned in 2000 because he required of a high investment to modernize the facilities and the implementation of new production technologies.

Today when we are in the middle of the worst pandemic in the last 100 years due to the appearance of the virus SARS-CoV-2, Several voices call for the creation of a vaccine center, such as those that neighboring countries like Argentina and Brazil and that today makes them more attractive places to generate agreements and more easily access the vaccines against Covid-19 that different laboratories and research centers are developing.

Today he was the rector of the University of Chile, Ennio Vivaldi, who suggested the creation of a vaccine center. And it already has a place for it: the Laguna Carén Academic Project, something like the Chilean Silicon Valley.

During a meeting coordinated by the Chilean Academy of Sciences to talk about vaccines against the coronavirus, and the participation of the University of Chile, the rector pointed out that the current moment of pandemic is useful to ask ourselves, as a country reflection, “from what position do we fight the pandemic, from where will we defend our people, our people from the ravages of the pandemic ”.

“We are formally proposing that a vaccine production center be created. We had it, at some point. We had a center that produced vaccines at the Institute of Public Health and we supplied our own demand on many of the vaccines. Today we do not do it and we spend a substantial amount of resources to pay for vaccines abroad, ”said Vivaldi.

In his opinion, it is necessary to have a vaccine production center because this It is not the first nor will it be the last time that we are faced with an unknown virus, “This situation will occur many times in the future.” In these circumstances, the rector insisted, “it is essential that we have independence in our ability to generate platforms and eventually to produce vaccines.”

The possibility of producing vaccines, is according to the rector, an attraction for vaccine developers since the country would become more attractive even to participate in phase 3 clinical studies, but it also implies having the highest level of employability in the world, because a vaccine center It is a highly qualified source of employment, therefore, the current productive matrix of the country is valued, which is basically extractivist.

“The purpose of our new campus in Carén It is to be the transdisciplinary infrastructure and they have a very strong component of state interest and we are very open to the participation of the Chilean academy. Developing a vaccine center is one more of the actions being taken in Carén ”, indicated Vivaldi.

The rector said that on this issue he had already had conversations with the authorities of the Ministry of Sciences, Health and also with a parliamentarian in Congress.

Consulted in this regard, Minister of Science, Andrés Couve, noted that Proposals regarding how Chile should address this issue in the future are very welcome and leave capabilities installed. “As for the immediate strategy for a Covid-19 vaccine, the deadlines for development and start of manufacturing are very limited, with international estimates pointing to the second quarter of 2021 for start of manufacturing, making it very difficult to meet those deadlines with local manufacturing especially given the technical requirements and necessary certifications ”.

The Minister of Science added that they are working on international collaborations and commercial agreements to have a vaccine as soon as possible and thus protect the life and health of our population, but we must consider that in this effort we still do not know what technology is going to be tested. be successful (for example if it will be a vaccine based on inactivated virus, adenovirus, or an emerging technology such as messenger RNA) and know that is necessary to set up manufacturing processes, or parts of them, very different.

The proposal of the University of Chile is not the only one. The University of Antofagasta, with the support of the IMII and the Regional Government, has already completed the first stage of a market evaluation and study project to install the necessary infrastructure to create a laboratory to create vaccines in Chile.

Its about Atacama Desert Vaccine Laboratory project, an initiative that proposes the construction of a plant of the “Fill and Finish” type, that is, the supplies are purchased, the doses are filled in the country and distributed. The approximate cost of this facility is 18 million 500 thousand euros, close to 17 billion pesos. Argentina, for example, has one of these plants.

Vivaldi considers this to be a good initiative and clarifies that in no case is his proposal antagonistic to it.

Currently, the University of Chile participates in three candidate vaccine initiatives that are being studied to combat the virus. One of them is the Chinese pharmaceutical vaccine Sinovac Bioctech (next to UC) and the other is a study by Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Laboratory.

Both studies are awaiting authorization from the ISP to start the enrollment of the volunteers and the entry of the vaccines. Miguel O’Ryan, researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICBM) from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile and the Millennium Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy (IMII), and who is in charge of the trial of the Janssen vaccine, said that it is likely that in October they can begin the study.

Regarding the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine, which has had two cases of serious side effects in British volunteers, O’Ryan said the trials are on hold but they hope to restart soon. Meanwhile, the protocol is under review by the university’s ethics committee and the ISP.