The Butantan Institute confirmed this Friday (23), in an official statement, that it will end the development of an immunizer against covid-19. The studies for the vaccine were in the so-called Phase II, which included tests on 400 volunteers. However, the results obtained were below the expected performance, falling short of other vaccines used in the country.
“According to the research, Butanvac doubled the amount of antibodies against the disease after 28 days of its application, when the expected goal was to induce a production of antibodies four times greater, a number achieved by a vaccine already available to the population”, says the note.
“The clinical trial fulfilled its role. At Butantan, we have absolute respect for the scientific process and results. That’s why the population can trust us. When we say that a vaccine is good, it’s because the studies have shown it to be so. In this case, the outcome did not demonstrate the expected immunogenicity. That’s why we stopped its development and continued to develop more promising routes,” explains the institute’s director, epidemiologist Esper Kallás, in the statement.
The vaccine was internationally called NDV-HXP-S and was being developed in partnership with the Vietnam Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biology and the Government Pharmaceutical Organization of Thailand, using technologies that the institute already mastered for the production of vaccines against flu caused by influenza viruses and which use chicken eggs to produce the antigens.
