A new, low-cost COVID vaccine gets approval for use in India
December 30, 2021 8:00 AM Subscribe
A COVID-19 vaccine created at the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development in Houston has received emergency use authorization in India. The "Corbevax vaccine is cheap, has no patents and uses traditional protein-based vaccine technology", which will make it easier for lower/middle-income countries to produce and distribute, according to Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean at Baylor's National School of Tropical Medicine.
He also called it "an important first step in vaccinating the world and halting the pandemic". (Note: HC is paywalled.)
According to the Texas Children's Hospital press release, it is effective against the Ancestral-Wuhan strain, and the Delta variant, and Corbevax also had 50 percent fewer adverse events than COVISHIELD.
He also called it "an important first step in vaccinating the world and halting the pandemic". (Note: HC is paywalled.)
According to the Texas Children's Hospital press release, it is effective against the Ancestral-Wuhan strain, and the Delta variant, and Corbevax also had 50 percent fewer adverse events than COVISHIELD.
Dr. Hotez talked with W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu last year. Pretty smart dude.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 8:41 AM on December 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Big Al 8000 at 8:41 AM on December 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
Of course, Africa may still benefit.
The biggest difference is that virtually anyone can make a protein vaccine. Recombinant DNA tech is so cheap and ubiquitous these days that a determined person in a backyard lab could make it as long as they had growth medium and a centrifuge. Basically send out vials upon vials of plasmids to whoever wants it, stick it in some yeast, grow it, purify it, stick it in a vaccine. First generation mRNA tech that we're working with currently has ridiculous downstream processing to get the mRNA into the lipids which is really the bottleneck of vaccine production.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 8:59 AM on December 30, 2021 [16 favorites]
The biggest difference is that virtually anyone can make a protein vaccine. Recombinant DNA tech is so cheap and ubiquitous these days that a determined person in a backyard lab could make it as long as they had growth medium and a centrifuge. Basically send out vials upon vials of plasmids to whoever wants it, stick it in some yeast, grow it, purify it, stick it in a vaccine. First generation mRNA tech that we're working with currently has ridiculous downstream processing to get the mRNA into the lipids which is really the bottleneck of vaccine production.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 8:59 AM on December 30, 2021 [16 favorites]
Recombinant DNA tech is so cheap and ubiquitous these days that a determined person in a backyard lab could make it as long as they had growth medium and a centrifuge. Basically send out vials upon vials of plasmids to whoever wants it, stick it in some yeast, grow it, purify it, stick it in a vaccine.
Not my field, but the colleagues I have who are doing this are always going on about post-translational modifications and aggregation and all sorts of other things that can go wrong with a product even though you have the sequence right.
But it's absolutely true that it's easier, and there is a lot more existing expertise and facilities, to manufacture this compared to the mRNA. And Indian companies have a good track record of low-cost manufacture, both for domestic use and for export to African nations.
posted by mark k at 9:46 AM on December 30, 2021 [5 favorites]
Not my field, but the colleagues I have who are doing this are always going on about post-translational modifications and aggregation and all sorts of other things that can go wrong with a product even though you have the sequence right.
But it's absolutely true that it's easier, and there is a lot more existing expertise and facilities, to manufacture this compared to the mRNA. And Indian companies have a good track record of low-cost manufacture, both for domestic use and for export to African nations.
posted by mark k at 9:46 AM on December 30, 2021 [5 favorites]
The biggest difference is that virtually anyone can make a protein vaccine
not only that, but efficacy and safety profiles on "flava of the month" protein vaccines (e.g. what sequence? is it glycosylated/post translationally modified? what adjuvants do you use) etc. have not been determined.
no-one thinks these will be ooooh dangerous with serious mortality/injury rates, but even small safety signals when prescribed at scale can sicken and kill hundreds and tens of thousands respectively.
There are big differences between "drug for covid suffering patient" and "vaccine for everyone including the healthy and children", and it's one. of. the. fucking. reasons. this. is. so. expensive.
do something new? do a clinical trial at scale. tens to hundreds of millions of dollars right there with hundreds to thousands of full-time, skilled employees.
see the hesitancy re J&J given the fact that it is less effective and slightly more dangerous.
posted by lalochezia at 9:48 AM on December 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
Are you saying that's a particular problem with the Texas vaccine or that the Texas vaccine is better in that regard?
(Maybe calling it "the Texas vaccine" might help to encourage some people on the fence about vaccination to get it? Seems worth a shot.)
posted by straight at 10:38 AM on December 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
(Maybe calling it "the Texas vaccine" might help to encourage some people on the fence about vaccination to get it? Seems worth a shot.)
posted by straight at 10:38 AM on December 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
I'm saying it's a particular problem with all protein-based vaccines - and more generally a problem with all new vaccines.
posted by lalochezia at 10:48 AM on December 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by lalochezia at 10:48 AM on December 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
There's probably no chance of this vaccine being approved in the United States, so calling it the Texas vaccine would not be too important for people in India (which I believe are not vaccine hesitant).
posted by meowzilla at 12:05 PM on December 30, 2021
posted by meowzilla at 12:05 PM on December 30, 2021
Yeah, this will likely be of limited use since any country like India that's capable of doing conventional vaccine manufacture has probably already been churning out the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine which also uses relatively conventional vaccine manufacturing processes. (It's not actually a conventional protein-based or inactivated vaccine - it's based around using another virus to introduce spike protein DNA into cells - but part of the appeal of it was that it could use essentially the same equipment and processes.)
posted by makomk at 1:43 PM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by makomk at 1:43 PM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
There's still the boosters though. The problem with the AZ vaccine (and for that matter J&J) is that the body gains immunity to the carrier adenovirus. We've been able to boost repeatedly with mRNA vaccines to introduce a wider variety of humoral immunity and see a lot of success. You can't do that with AZ/J&J.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 1:59 PM on December 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 1:59 PM on December 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
The lots-of-buzz-last-year Novavax vaccine, another protein subunit vaccine, is also already being made in India for export. I don't know if it is more difficult to make or is more protected by patents than this one from Texas.
posted by meowzilla at 2:58 PM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by meowzilla at 2:58 PM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm saying it's a particular problem with all protein-based vaccines
I've been confused about whether the mRNA spike protein vaccines are in the "protein-based" category.
posted by straight at 7:01 PM on December 30, 2021
I've been confused about whether the mRNA spike protein vaccines are in the "protein-based" category.
posted by straight at 7:01 PM on December 30, 2021
So, this is interesting. Dr. Hotez claims that he's received a bunch of emails from people in the US who have refused the current mRNA vaccines who are willing to take this vaccine instead. I think this would be a great way to address some of the vaccine hesitancy in the US.
posted by toastyk at 7:16 PM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by toastyk at 7:16 PM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
I've been confused about whether the mRNA spike protein vaccines are in the "protein-based" category.
No, they are considered a different category; you aren't giving the protein directly. It's a new category; you give miniscule amounts of mRNA and the body produces the protein itself.
This one makes the protein outside the body using live cells (such as yeast) to churn out the protein in large quantities, then they isolate and inject the protein. It's old, well known technology used for a lot of protein production (not just vaccines.)
Like mRNA the adenovirus vaccines (J&J, AstraZeneca) also don't give the protein directly; they put it inside a virus to get the body to make it. This works, is easier than the mRNA to manufacture, but as people mentioned the body can react against the harmless carrier adenovirus and render it ineffective, especially with booster shots.
posted by mark k at 9:47 PM on December 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
No, they are considered a different category; you aren't giving the protein directly. It's a new category; you give miniscule amounts of mRNA and the body produces the protein itself.
This one makes the protein outside the body using live cells (such as yeast) to churn out the protein in large quantities, then they isolate and inject the protein. It's old, well known technology used for a lot of protein production (not just vaccines.)
Like mRNA the adenovirus vaccines (J&J, AstraZeneca) also don't give the protein directly; they put it inside a virus to get the body to make it. This works, is easier than the mRNA to manufacture, but as people mentioned the body can react against the harmless carrier adenovirus and render it ineffective, especially with booster shots.
posted by mark k at 9:47 PM on December 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
A COVID vaccine for all - Dr. Hotez and Maria Elena Bottazzi, co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development write more about the vaccine and its advantages.
posted by toastyk at 6:21 AM on December 31, 2021
posted by toastyk at 6:21 AM on December 31, 2021
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64% of Indians are 18+ and among them ~95% have received at least one dose, and 67% both doses. The dose interval is 12 to 16 weeks. The govt operates free vaccination centers and in Mumbai, these have administered ~64% of all doses. So I don't know what problem this vaccine is supposed to solve in India - it's not availability or cost or hesitancy.
Of course, Africa may still benefit.
posted by daksya at 8:39 AM on December 30, 2021 [1 favorite]