The vaccine national Arvac Cecilia Grierson (Arvac CG) against the coronavirus, developed by Conicet, the National University of San Martín (Unsam) and the Cassará Laboratory, “is safe”.
It is the first time that a antibody injection of infectious diseases is designed and developed entirely in our country, in addition, it completes the clinical studies of phase I. “It is very immunological”, revealed the report on the clinical trials in which 80 healthy people previously participated vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus).
“It is designed to be used as a booster and is based on recombinant protein technologyconsidered very safe, since it has been used for decades to manufacture the vaccine against hepatitis B that is used in newborn children or against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) that is applied to adolescents”, they said from the Conicet.
Juliana Cassataro, development leader and Conicet researcher at the Dr. Rodolfo Ugalde Biotechnological Research Institute (IIB), dependent on Conicet and Unsam, explained that “it was proven that our vaccine induces an increase of up to 30 times of these antibodies against three variants of the virus: Omicron, Gamma, and Wuhan”.
Looking at it from another perspective, Conicet reported that “completing the development of ARVAC CG will allow Argentina to stop using dollars from the Central Bank to finance the purchase of vaccines imported and inclusive it will be able to generate foreign exchange by exporting the national vaccine to other countries in the region.”
The future of the vaccine
It is estimated that the Phase II and Phase III clinical studies will be completed in the first quarter of 2023, which means that the ANMAT could authorize it for use during the following year.
Even so, Cassataro stressed that Arvac CG is designed so that its active ingredient can be updated and deal with new variants that escape the immune response induced by current antibody injections that apply to the population.
