Corona Daily 484: In Search of a Vaccine

Across the USA, chickens lay millions of life-saving eggs at secret poultries. The eggs are so precious, they have bodyguards. For the past 80 years, most influenza vaccines rely on chicken eggs. The selected flu virus is injected into a hen’s egg, where it incubates and replicates just like it does inside a human host. Scientists then harvest fluid containing the virus from the egg. The virus is then purified to create the virus antigen, the critical element to create a vaccine. During the latest flu season, the USA used 140 million eggs, each egg producing one vaccine. But the Coronavirus doesn’t replicate inside an egg. This method won’t work.

For the novel Coronavirus, till date 116 treatments and 79 vaccine programmes have been proposed. Vaccine making is not a profitable business, so big pharma companies are not in the game. Bill Gates has invested billions to fund seven different vaccines, in the hope that one or two may work.

The race is frantic. Moderna, a ten year old biotech company, has gone from decoding the virus DNA to initial human trial in a record 63 days. (The injected woman had to sign a 45-page waiver). Two factors have helped vaccine creators. The Chinese sequenced the genetic material of the virus speedily, and shared the sequence with the world in early January. Secondly, SARS and MERS vaccines never materialized, but much work was done on their development. Now some of it is revisited to see if tweaking may help create something against the current virus.

Regulatory and approval process may be cut short in a crisis. However, following is the shortest flowchart to create a vaccine.

Sequencing the virus genes------ creating a vaccine ------ initial trial----- animal testing------ large scale trials ------ develop a proven vaccine----- manufacture it----- ship it----- inject it into people.

It is not a smooth process. Anything pumped into the arms of a billion people must ensure it doesn’t harm healthy people. During the 2009-10 swine flu pandemic, Pandemrix vaccine (GlaxoSmithKline) was administered to six million people. It had to be withdrawn from the market after thousands complained of Narcolepsy, a disorder causing the person to sleep many times a day.

The best case scenario, therefore, is a vaccine in the second half of 2021. Whenever it happens, one thing is certain. The world will look at vaccine-making far more seriously in the future.

Ravi