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There are urgent calls for the government to develop a national vaccine strategy, and someone to lead it, amid fears that New Zealand may be at the end of the line for any possible Covid-19 vaccine.
Most infectious disease experts agree that any Covid-19 vaccine is at best 12 to 18 months old.
3D print of a SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, versus a 3D print of a SARS-CoV-2 virus particle. The spike protein (close-up) allows the virus to enter and infect human cells.
Photo: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH
Around 40 teams of scientists from around the world are working on coronavirus vaccines, and about 80 vaccines are in the initial development phase.
But it is complicated. There are at least five different technologies to work with, from tried and tested inactive methods, such as those used for seasonal influenza, to new genetic or RNA vaccines, none of which still exist.
A six-phase process must be followed, including trials to determine dosage, formulation, side effects, adverse effects, and overall effectiveness.
Added to the difficulty is the lack of reference material, since no human was found with Covid-19 before December 2019.
Not only that, there is still no vaccine against any type of coronavirus.
Immunologist Ian Frazer of the University of Queensland, who worked on the HPV vaccine, says a vaccine available in up to a year and a half is feasible, but science is challenging.
“The critical problem with all vaccines is demonstrating safety, and safety is something that can only be done through clinical trials and, of course, takes time.
“The monitoring history of coronavirus vaccines is that some of them have been tested on animals, and if the animal subsequently finds the virus, it becomes sicker than if the vaccine had not been administered,” said Frazer.
Trials could be accelerated if healthy volunteers were willing to administer the vaccine and then be exposed to the virus itself, he said.
A coordinated global response would be needed to distribute the vaccine, Frazer said.
“It would be very unfortunate if the vaccine were only available in a limited number of countries that manufacture it themselves.
“The biggest challenge is scaling up any vaccine we find to work to the level necessary to administer a vaccine to a population of 8 billion people across the globe.”
Now is the time to think about childbirth, so when we have a vaccine, we are ready, Frazer said. But we should not assume that a vaccine will be successfully developed.
“Despite all the good stories to date, we may never have a vaccine, we’ve been trying coronavirus vaccines for a long time, and we don’t have one available yet, so we don’t want to put all of our eggs in the basket of a vaccine.
“We also want to look for possible treatments for people who are already infected, and we want to realize that we may not get any of these.
“Assuming we can get a vaccine that works, then the most important thing about all of that is making sure it’s not a vaccine for Australia or New Zealand or for a particular country; it’s a global vaccine to control a global pandemic.”
Professor Graham Le Gros, who directs biomedical research at the Malaghan Institute, says trusting other countries for a vaccine is the wrong approach. He is working on a vaccine made in New Zealand.
“We are in a prime position in New Zealand where we can learn from some of the vaccine developments happening elsewhere.”
If we sit on our hands, nothing will happen and all New Zealand will have to offer the rest of the world is money, he said.
“We have a world-renowned vaccine production, we make excellent animal vaccines, we can turn that into human vaccines.”
You have no doubt that a vaccine could be made here.
“We can do it, of course we can, we have made vaccines. There is no reason why we cannot make something like a protein vaccine and put it in people and test it. We have some of the best doctors in the world … we can do it “
Being part of a global response, particularly when it comes to acquisitions, will require a joint national strategy, says Professor David Murdoch, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Otago.
“We are a rich country and we are a small and rich country in the southern hemisphere with responsibility for quite a few countries in the South Pacific, so it is a legitimate concern … we certainly will not be a high priority, but we need to be in the game in terms of how we have access at the right time. “
Doctors are adding concerns about the availability of the Covid-19 vaccine, if one is developed.
Two open letters, signed by international and national organizations, were sent to the Minister of Health and Minister of Commerce, urging them to address concerns that the WTO’s intellectual property trade rules could impede our ability to ensure affordable access to medical supplies, including vaccines and possible medications to treat Covid-19.
“There is a chance that effective drugs will be developed for Covid-19, but New Zealand as a smaller country, with no manufacturing capacity of its own, ends up at the tail end,” said Dr. George Laking, medical oncologist at Physicians. for healthy trade he said Nine at noon.
We have seen this develop with the PPE, he said, and it may be necessary to break WTO rules on intellectual property by taking advantage of a compulsory license that suspends the monopoly effect of a patent and allows others to be produced by the patent holder. and supply a product.
The Ministry of Health was approached by Nine at noon to comment and gave this statement.
“The development of a safe and effective vaccine is a crucial tool in the eradication of Covid-19 worldwide.
“The government is currently investigating how to ensure that research efforts here are connected to global research, so there is a coordinated strategy to find a COVID-19 vaccine. More information will be available on this soon.
“New Zealand is currently developing a vaccine strategy that will bring key stakeholders together in a coordinated approach. The vaccine strategy will be part of a broader immunization strategy.
“The health sector agencies involved include the Ministry of Health, which is responsible for the design and implementation of national immunization programs, Medsafe, the regulatory agency responsible for evaluating the safety and quality of medicines, and Pharmac, the Crown entity that decides which drugs and medical devices are funded in New Zealand.
“These agencies are working closely with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), which is the agency responsible for the science and innovation system, the scientific and research community, and potential vaccine manufacturers based in New Zealand.”
