[ad_1]
The “Pfizer” and “Bayontek” vaccine is very close to the market, the first results showed that it is as effective as 90 percent and, as the manufacturers claim, there are no serious side effects.
The vaccine uses genetic engineering to make cells produce parts of the virus that the immune system recognizes, according to The Guardian. The dose of the vaccine carries specific RNA information that contains instructions on how to build a receptor on the surface of the virus.
In theory, if this synthetic mRNA is injected into a person, it should enter cells and program them to build proteins that resemble the receptor surface of the virus. If a vaccinated person comes into contact with the infection, their immune system will be able to fight it.
“This mRNA doesn’t stay in the body, it breaks down very quickly,” Dr. Robert Frank, who runs a trial of the “Pfizer” Covid vaccine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, told CNN in late October.
The “Pfizer / Bayontek” mRNA vaccine, which uses the genetic code instead of parts of the virus itself, is one of the leaders in the race to find a treatment for Kovid-19. Results of a trial of the vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZenek are expected this month or next, but it is based on a different technology.
Phase 3 trials of the “Pfizer” vaccine involved more than 43,000 people who received the Kovid vaccine in two doses three weeks apart or a placebo. Neither the volunteers nor their doctors knew which vaccine was used.
It was also analyzed how many of them were infected with Kovid without receiving a new vaccine, that is, a placebo. 94 people have been infected so far, which is three times more than the company’s original plans, but as analyzes have shown that 90 percent of them did not receive the vaccine, this indicates that no more than eight people who were infected received it.
To confirm its effectiveness, Pfizer said it would continue investigations until there are 164 cases of Kovid among volunteers in the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. Given the recent increase in infections in the United States, that threshold could be reached as early as December.
Although the results have not yet been released, the company says this will happen as soon as the results of the entire test come in.
To save time, companies started producing the vaccine before they even learned whether it works. It is expected to produce up to 50 million doses, which is enough to protect 25 million people this year, and another 1.3 billion doses next year.
Many countries have already asked for it.
Britain has bought 30 million doses, which is enough for 15 million people because two doses are needed. The European Union has provided 200 million doses to distribute to members. The companies also have a contract with the US government for the delivery of 100 million doses, worth 1.95 billion dollars.
These vaccines against the corona virus should also reach Serbia, as said at the end of October. President Aleksandar Vučić noted that Serbia had signed a preliminary agreement on the procurement of these vaccines with “Pfizer”. He added that the acquisition of these vaccines would go through Poland, as a member state of the EU.
There is a problem in developing countries, because this vaccine must be stored at a very low temperature, minus 80 degrees Celsius.
Bayontek CEO Ugur Shahin said his company was investigating whether the vaccine would survive five days at a normal refrigerator temperature of four degrees.
In Germany, the government plans to establish centers equipped with ultra-cold freezers for the first phase of vaccination.
Bayontek, a Mainz-based company employing around 500 scientists, was founded in 2008 by Shahin and his wife, Dr. Ozlem Tureki, with Austrian oncologist Christopher Huber. Originally launched to develop new types of cancer immunotherapy, the company is now focused on the race to produce a vaccine against Kovid.
Even before the first quarantine, which covered most of the world in the spring, the company developed as many as 20 vaccine candidates and then tested five. Two of them elicited a particularly strong immune reaction. At the time, Pfizer said both vaccines produced the same amount of antibodies in volunteers, but the other had significantly fewer side effects and was better tolerated by older participants, with an already weaker immune system.
The company announced in mid-October that it plans to begin testing its vaccine in children under the age of 12, the first trial of the coronavirus vaccine to include children in the United States.
The younger volunteers received their first dose early and an observation is underway to see if there will be any unusual side effects. The Cincinnati Children’s Hospital team vaccinated 100 children.
– Now we pause to see if there will be a reaction to the vaccine. This is a planned break to ensure everything is as safe as possible, Dr. Frank said.
Side effects that doctors monitor include swelling, redness, or pain at the injection site, as well as fever or pain. Frank said people may be concerned that the experimental vaccine is being given to children, but noted that “Pfizer” has already tested its product on tens of thousands of adults.
“The reason we can use the vaccine in children is that” Pfizer “had 30,000 adult volunteers and safety data based on them,” he noted.
Frank noted that it is important to vaccinate children against the coronavirus if we want to control the pandemic, because they almost certainly contribute to the “silent” spread of the disease. Additionally, teens who requested the test had, as CNN writes, mild reactions and one boy had a mild fever.
– After we gave him a dose of “ibuprofen”, he felt good – added Dr. Frank.
British expert: life will return to normal in spring
Following Pfizer’s announcement of the new vaccine, Sir John Bell, professor of medicine at Oxford University and a member of the British staff against the corona crisis, expressed his belief that “life should return to normal in the spring of the next year”.
Bel is known as one of the foremost British medical experts, and his statements and opinions carry specific weight not only in Britain, but also in many other countries, according to the BBC.
Bell was enthusiastic about the announcement by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer that the efficiency of the vaccine is estimated at 90 percent, adding that there will be difficulties in the distribution of the new vaccine, but that these difficulties are not insurmountable.
In an interview with BBC Radio’s Latest News program, Professor Bell announced that by the end of the year and in the first months of next year, there could be “more than one vaccine” in the UK.
[ad_2]
