The current COVID-19 pandemic continues to act as a mire to our everyday lives; examinations into how it has spread throughout the world, as well as how it actually enters and infects cells, are all around us.
Of course, efforts are continuously underway through various institutions that give us solutions on curbing the damage done by the virus through vaccines and similar medicines. Thanks to the efforts of these researchers, along with a swelling of support from the scientific community in the form of processing and analysis, we are inching ever closer to addressing this issue at the root.
This particular effort from a group of scientists from the Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine seems to take a step in the same direction. However, one particular aspect of their novel Corbevax COVID-19 vaccine is making heads turn; their vaccine is “patent-free”—or it is, at least, according to a press release from Texas Children’s Hospital.
“Protein-based vaccines have been widely used to prevent many other diseases, have proven safety records, and use economies of scale to achieve low-cost scalability across the world,” says research co-lead Maria Elena Bottazzi when asked about the protein-based nature of Corbevax.
These protein-based vaccines operate on roughly the same principles as our usual fare of mRNA-based ones; however, these vaccines differ in the sense that instead of using mRNA to instruct our cells to produce the relevant spike proteins, these vaccines instead sends out their own batch of lab-generated spike proteins.
To make these vaccines, the research team took the genes that produced the relevant spike proteins and inserted them into bioengineered yeast; these microorganisms then produced the spike proteins, which were then modified to enhance immune responsiveness.
The research team then collaborated with India-based Biological E pharmaceutical company to start clinical trials; since then, and after a series of clinical trials, Corbevax has been granted emergency use authorization by India, with up to 150 million doses ready to be administered.
Perhaps what’s most remarkable about this vaccine, however, is the fact that it is being developed “patent-free”—meaning vaccine producers the world will have a much easier time manufacturing Corbevax. Research Team co-head Peter Hotez describes Corbevax as a “gift to the world,” having already transferred the technology to producers in countries like India, Bangladesh, and Botswana.
Said Hotez in a news release by New Atlas: “This announcement is an important first step in vaccinating the world and halting the pandemic. Our vaccine technology offers a path to address an unfolding humanitarian crisis, namely the vulnerability the low- and middle-income countries face against the Delta variant.”
References
- Haridy, R. (2022, January 3). New patent-free COVID vaccine developed as “gift to the world”. New Atlas. https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/patent-free-coronavirus-vaccine-protein-subunit/
- Texas children’s hospital and baylor college of medicine covid-19 vaccine technology secures emergency use authorization in india | texas children’s hospital. (n.d.). Texas Children’s Hospital. Retrieved 4 January 2022, from https://www.texaschildrens.org/texas-children%E2%80%99s-hospital-and-baylor-college-medicine-covid-19-vaccine-technology-secures-emergency
