The Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), an agency of the Department of Science and Innovation, is making its prototype Covid-19 vaccine vector-based on the Vaccinia MVA virus available to developing countries. The facility has signed a second agreement with the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) public health organization, supported by the United Nations Organization (UN) and overseen by the World Health Organization (WHO), which will advance the advancement of this technology into clinical practice will facilitate studies and reach out to the countries most in need. Following the Covid-19 serological tests, this is the second time that the CSIC has donated a technology through WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative to promote equal access to Covid-19 health technologies to facilitate.
The signature is part of the initiative (C-TAP) launched by the WHO in May 2020 to facilitate this timely, equitable and affordable access to Covid-19 healthcare products by promoting its production. C-TAP provides a single global window for companies developing technologies to combat Covid-19, such as B. therapies, vaccines and diagnostic systems, aiming to share their intellectual property (patents), knowledge and data with manufacturers of proven quality through transparent, non-exclusive licenses and ready to serve public health.
It is an honor for the CSIC to continue to work with the World Health Organization and the UN’s Medicine Patent Pool initiative to make Covid-19 health technologies accessible to all countries that need them, and especially countries in the development process
“The CSIC is honored to continue working with the World Health Organization and the UN’s Medicine Patent Pool initiative to make Covid-19 health technologies available to all countries that need them, and especially the developing world,” stressed he the president of the CSIC, Eloisa del Pino. “The WHO and Medicines Patent Pool COVID-19 Technology Access Pool initiative is an ideal framework to facilitate the transfer of knowledge to those with fewer resources,” he adds.
A Covid-19 vaccine with 100% proven efficacy in animal models
The vaccine is based on the modified Ankara vaccinia virus (MVA) vector expressing the stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein in prefusion (designated MVA-CoV2-S(3P)). The vaccine prototype was developed by the research team Mariano Esteban and Juan Garcia Arriaza, from CSIC’s National Center for Biotechnology (CNB), which is also part of CSIC’s Global Health interdisciplinary thematic platform, which received funding from the European Recovery Fund. The development of its industrial production under quality standards was carried out through the collaboration of the CSIC with the Spanish company Biofabri.
Studies carried out in various animal models show in detail that the MVA-CoV2-S (3P) vaccine activates the immune system and protects against infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. On the one hand, the vaccine activates a specific CD4 T and CD8 T cell immune response against SARS-CoV-2 that is robust, broad, high-quality and long-lasting. On the other hand, the vaccine induces high levels of IgG-binding antibodies against the S-protein and the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2, as well as neutralizing antibodies against the original Wuhan variant or against different variants of these viruses, which are also long-lived.
It is important that the The vaccine protects against SARS-CoV-2 infection, thereby avoiding the replication of the virus both in the lungs and in the brain, as well as the pathology associated with it (lung and brain damage, absence of a cytokine storm and other parameters). In addition, the vaccine prevents mortality caused by SARS-CoV-2 in the mouse model.
This license agreement with the MPP organization, the implementing partner of the WHO-C-TAP initiative, opens up the possibility of finding allies in third countries to advance clinical trials of this vaccine and notes that in the future it offers an alternative to the options Covid-19 represents vaccine approved worldwide, especially in countries with fewer resources.
