[ad_1]
Mr. Sahin, in April you and your company Biontech received the “green light” from the Paul Ehrlich Institute for the first clinical trials of a Covid-19 vaccine. How is it now?
Sonja kastilan
Head of the “Science” section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
We are in phase III and now we are slowly approaching the final stretch.
It was recently said that he would prefer one drug candidate over another. How many were there at the beginning?
We started with twenty candidates, we have clinically tested four. The Phase III candidate looks very promising.
Why this diversity?
For several reasons: it is a new pathogen; At first we did not know how the virus worked, what was the best way to deactivate it. That is why we use different components of the virus for different candidate vaccines and compare them in a large number of tests. It is about obtaining an optimal immune response in a tolerable dose. Finally, it became clear that two approaches were correct.
What is the difference between them?
We work with a smaller and a larger fragment.
Is it the spike protein that serves as an anchor for the virus and allows it to enter cells?
Yes, that is our goal. We use the genetic information for the spike protein once in full and once only partially. At first, it was not clear if a broad immune response against the larger piece would not reinforce the disease or if an immune response only against the smaller piece might not be enough. However, in principle, both approaches were successful, so now we not only have a candidate vaccine, but were also able to answer a scientific question.
The whole world talks about the coronavirus. All the news and analysis on the spread and control of the pandemic in your email inbox every day.
For a long time it was not clear whether humans develop immunity to this pathogen. What is known now?
In the last nine months, this virus has also been shown to induce immunity in sick people. It’s not particularly strong, antibody titers are comparatively low, but people who have recovered are likely protected against serious new infections for at least six to eight months. It remains to be seen how long immunity lasts, but the presence of immunity tells us that, in principle, a vaccine can also work. We also know that the aforementioned spike protein is not only suitable as a target, but is probably the only one that can trigger a virus-inactivating immune response. Much independent evidence shows that a spike in immune response protects against infection, and so far there is no evidence that effective vaccine protection increases disease. These are fundamental but important biological questions that we have answered. By the way, by “we” I mean the entire scientific community.
With Biontech, do you feel part of a team, along with all the international competitors?
