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That’s why all Swiss vaccine projects failed
Federal Councilors Berset and Parmelin had to hear criticism over reports of a failed vaccination deal with Lonza / Moderna. Image: keystone
The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) examined several Swiss vaccine projects at the start of the pandemic. According to the Federal Council, none of them have reached the same level of development as the best international projects.
Although there were three promising Swiss coronavirus vaccine candidates in spring 2020, no Swiss vaccine has yet been produced. However, preparations are being made so that other vaccines already approved in Switzerland can be produced, the Federal Council writes in a response published on Monday to an urgent question from the National Councilor of the SP, Fabián Molina (ZH). Moderna and Pfizer / Biontech vaccines are already manufactured in Switzerland today.
Fabian Molina placeholder image Image: keystone
Regarding the shortage of vaccines, Molina wanted to know, among other things, what measures the Federal Council is planning to increase the capacity to produce vaccines at the national level.
Three projects on the starting blocks
One of the three vaccine projects came from the immunologist Martin Bachmann from Inselspital Bern. He and his team worked on a vaccine that targets the spiny proteins, the spines, on the surface of Sars-Cov-2. The complexity of the vaccine was problematic. In January, Bachmann told the Swiss television program “Puls” (SRF) that his planned vaccine was much more complicated to manufacture than a now common RNA vaccine.
Martin Bachmann Image: srf
A second vaccine candidate failed due to funding. Basel immunologist Peter Burkhard’s candidate relied on protein nanoparticles to which the virus’s peak proteins would have “stuck”. Burkhard presented the project to the federal government in April 2020.
There he initially met with great interest, as he told “Pulse.” The federal government pointed out that the money needed for this could be discussed. But suddenly he hit the brakes. The immunologist could not continue working on the project due to lack of financial resources.
The third candidate came from Stefan Halbheer’s Freiburg start-up Innomedica. I was working on a vaccine based on fat droplets (liposomes). The liposomes to which the spike proteins were added served as the vaccine. Production was announced for July. However, the first vaccine prototype could not be developed further because the process did not work as expected, as he told “Pulse”.
No offer to buy from Lonza
In recent days, the question of whether the Federal Council had rejected an offer from Lonza to buy a factory for the production of vaccines also raised concerns about vaccine production. Health Minister Alain Berset confirmed to the media on Friday that the Federal Council had received a letter from Lonza a year ago. The point was, Moderna had selected Lonza to produce the vaccine.
But according to Berset, it was about investments. It was never about buying an infrastructure that produces vaccines. “And when you invest in a company, it doesn’t automatically mean that you get more vaccines,” Berset said. The Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) then negotiated with Moderna / Lonza to receive the vaccination doses, Berset said.
The National Council is holding an ongoing debate on the corona pandemic on Wednesday. Several political groups had requested a debate with urgent interpellations. A general discussion on various topics is expected. Health Minister Alain Berset will be available to answer questions from the entire Federal Council. (aeg / sda)
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