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The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control estimates that, in the best of cases, the vaccine against covid-19 will arrive in early 2021, but stresses that Europe “is much better prepared” than six months ago.
“It is very difficult to predict, but we will probably only have [uma vacina] at the beginning of next year, at best and assuming that clinical trials have positive results in terms of efficacy and safety, ”says the deputy director of the disease program at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) , Piotr Kramarz.
Noting that, especially in Europe, “a large number of vaccines are being prepared in record time, […] many of them are already undergoing advanced tests ”, the scientist tells Lusa that the ECDC“ is already preparing follow-up plans ”.
“By the time the vaccine is available, we can monitor its efficacy and make sure it is safe,” says Piotr Kramarz.
This Thursday, the European Commission made official, on behalf of the European Union, the purchase of 300 million doses of a potential vaccine from the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which is in an advanced phase of large-scale clinical trials and with promising results.
The formalization follows a previous acquisition contract signed by AstraZeneca in mid-August, given the potential vaccine that the British company is developing together with the University of Oxford.
The European Commission is also discussing similar agreements with other vaccine manufacturers, that is, after having already concluded exploratory talks with Sanofi-GSK (July 31), Johnson & Johnson (August 13), CureVac (August 18).
Also on Thursday, the European Commission assured that, “together with the Member States and the European Medicines Agency, it will use the existing flexibilities in the EU regulatory framework to accelerate the authorization and availability of successful vaccines against covid-19, maintaining the standards of quality, safety and efficacy of the vaccine ”.
Still, according to Piotr Kramarz, this is a process that should take a few more months.
But there is “good news” for covid-19 in Europe, according to the scientist.
“In terms of treatments, there is already one authorized, Remdesivir, which is an antiviral drug used in critical patients,” he highlights, alluding to the endorsement given by the European Medicines Agency to use this drug to combat covid-19.
At the end of July, the community executive also signed a contract of 63 million euros with the pharmaceutical company Gilead to ensure treatments with Remdesivir in the European Union.
“Countries have learned a lot”
Another piece of good news is that “there are mechanisms to test and identify cases effectively” in Europe, highlights Piotr Kramarz in an interview with Lusa.
“The ability to perform tests has increased significantly and we have learned a lot about contact tracking and how to contact people who have been in contact with infected people, that is, through mobile applications”, reinforces the person in charge.
And he says: “We are much better prepared [para enfrentar a pandemia] than we were in spring ”.
In the first place, because “the countries have learned a lot from this first phase and, therefore, there is already a lot of preparation in the health services,” he justifies.
In any case, the specialist anticipates a “difficult period” of resurgence of infections in the coming months, which could coincide with the normal flu season, so he adds that the ECDC is already “asking Member States to prepare for that”.
Based in Sweden, ECDC’s mission is to help European countries respond to disease outbreaks.
