In mid-March, the Spanish public administration’s overwhelming commitment to obtaining a vaccine threw the towel. However, this was not the only vaccine being developed in Spain. In fact, that of Hipra’s Geronese laboratories was even more advanced. So much so that if all goes well, we already have a date for its release, so does such a vaccine make sense now? aren’t you late

2022: year of vaccination. “The hypra vaccine is progressing very well, is completing the final phase of the clinical trial, and they will pass the results to the regulatory agency,” said Diana Morant, Minister for Science and Research. Moreover, “The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has launched the accelerated ‘rolling review’ process for this vaccine” and “as soon as the EMA approves the vaccine, we will be in a position to market and use this vaccine” when approved. The company itself even moves June as a date”. However, Hipra’s public plans speak of the third quarter of 2022.

What does the hypra vaccine contain? Weeks ago, Morant said that the Spanish vaccine against coronavirus “wouldn’t have come if it hadn’t come sooner.” [era] because Hipra was more ambitious.” I don’t know if it’s more ambitious (to call the success of RNA vaccines ‘cheat’ is understandable only from a rhetorical point of view), but this is different.

Or ‘traditional’ if we want to be rigorous. Unlike mRNA from Pfizer and Moderna and adenoviruses from AstraZeneca and Janssen, Hipra’s vaccine is part of so-called ‘recombinant vaccines’ and directly inoculates proteins previously produced in cell culture.

Specifically, the active ingredient of this vaccine is a recombinant protein with a heterodimer structure that mimics the ‘S’ protein of Alpha and Beta variants of the virus. Preferably or necessarily, the Hipra teams did their best to use proven methods to obtain a vaccine that would improve what is already available on the market in terms of versatility, protection and availability. What is not clear is that this is a “comparative advantage”.

Coming late? Let’s remember that 11,390 million doses are already given in the world and although many people are not yet vaccinated, most of the world’s countries and international purchasing organizations already have long-term contracts with existing vaccine manufacturers. For this reason, the first move of Amer laboratories (Girona) was to apply it as a booster dose.

However, the main feature of this type of vaccine is that, contrary to the best known, the technology used not only has the support of many previous vaccines, but is also very easy to manufacture and store. To give a few examples, this vaccine is stored between 2 and 8 ºC; It is also distributed ready-to-use and administered intramuscularly.

This puts it in a good strategic position to reach millions of people and dozens of countries that cannot afford other vaccines. It is also a safe vaccine for future variants. Of late or not, it seems more commercial than scientific.

long term. However, if we have to look at one thing, it’s in the long run. When the pandemic broke out, we Europeans discovered that we were eerily dependent on Asia, the world’s largest pharmacy. Europe did not produce a gram of paracetamol without going further. But we also had problems in terms of biotechnological development.

While it is true that many of today’s best vaccines were developed in the Union, the major pharmaceutical groups and leading research centers were powerless to develop their own vaccines. It’s okay to be “late” if we learn for the future; In fact, there is no other way to learn to be on time.

Image | Ministry of Science and Innovation