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Shark Allies, a California-based shark environmental protection organization, warned of the possibility of a large number of shark deaths in the production of a vaccine for Covid-19, as the liver of these animals has an essential ingredient.
At stake is the squalane, ingredient found in a oil produced by shark liver and that is used for medicinal purposes by the pharmaceutical industry, specifically by GlaxoSmithKline. Squalane has been used to produce various vaccines for different coronaviruses and flu, including bird flu (MERS-CoV), swine flu (H1N1), and possibly Covid-19, when a vaccine for this disease exists.
According to Shark Allies, if a vaccine were made for every human being with squalane derived from shark liver oil, 250,000 of those animals would have to be euthanized. And that figure would double if it were necessary to administer a second dose to each person taking this vaccine – which, for now, does not exist in its final stage but is being developed in various parts of the world, with different criteria.
In a statement, the director of that NGO, Stefanie Brendl, said: “The collection of something from a wild animal will never be sustainable, especially when it is a predator that does not reproduce in large quantities.”
In the text of a petition created by Shark Allies, that NGO highlights that squalane can be produced from sources other than animals: “It can be produced from yeast, bacteria, sugar cane, olive oil, and possibly even algae.”. In a statement, the biotechnology company Amyris, also based in California, already announced that it is studying the extraction of squalane from sugar cane, which, unlike its production from shark liver, claims to have “A lower cost.”
