A titanic road race is being given by research institutes and major pharmaceutical companies these days in the United States, Canada, Europe, China and Russia, in order to create the vaccine or even better the medicine who will drastically confront him coronavirus, which unfortunately has cost the lives of far more than 11.600 people.
However, there is not always good cooperation between scientific teams around the world, as one would expect from a romantic, since whoever first discovers the "magic recipe" will make billions of euros, as he will keep the patent for a not insignificant period of time.
Volunteers with a salary of 3.000-3.500 euros
Intensive Care Units around the world are already testing drug regimens that are still in the experimental stage, in order to determine how the human body reacts, while healthy ones also play a catalytic role. volunteers They are offered a monthly fee of 3.000 to 3.500 euros with free accommodation, as well as ways to spend their time, from watching movies and PlayStation in leisure lounges, to gyms to exercise, to record reactions per activity. What stage are we in at the moment in finding the drug that will end the pandemic?
French researchers have stopped transmitting the virus
The news is encouraging. In France, the Mediterranean Institute of Infectious Diseases based in Marseilles, after repeated clinical trials, found that the active substance hydroxychloroquine has very good results. Professor Didier Raul administered the drug Plaquenil, which contains the substance, to 24 patients with coronavirus for ten days, and 18 of the patients on the sixth day were not carriers of the virus. This means that they managed to stop the contagion. The results were even better when hydroxychloroquine was given in combination with azithromycin in subjects with clinical respiratory symptoms due to Covid-19 and led to pneumonia.
Canadian scientists has isolated the coronavirus
At the same time in Canada, scientists at research centers, especially at universities in Toronto and McMaster, were the first to isolate the coronavirus, which means paving the way for the production of appropriate antibodies that will neutralize the strain of the flu that has plagued the world since the end of last year. Isolation of the virus is the first step in obtaining and storing it, in order to create stocks of the strain, which will then be used to develop the vaccine.
Russians try animal vaccine
At the same time, vaccines are already being tested in animals in a Siberian laboratory, according to Russia's health services. Scientists at the Vektor Center for Biotechnology and Virology are detailing the reactions to the experiments and say they may come up with a vaccine for wider use over the next 12 to 18 months.
A new drug is also being prepared in China
Of course, China, from which the evil started, has also entered the game. Researchers in the country, as pointed out by Sotiris Tsiodras, an associate professor of pathology specializing in infectious diseases, have started using a new drug that is being clinically tested in 340 patients in Wuhan and Shenzhen cities, which showed a negative from the administration of the drug. The head of the scientific team of the Ministry of Health of our country, after meaningfully stating that "there are some encouraging data that allow us to see the future with some optimism and we expect to be confirmed by other studies."
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences are also conducting preliminary tests on patients. For the "Phase 1" test, which will examine whether the experimental vaccine is safe for humans, 108 healthy people will be recruited, with their participation lasting from March 16 to December 31. The experiments continue day and night and the battle that is given only easy does not seem. We will definitely have the vaccine or medicine, but we do not know exactly when it will be available on the market, since even if it is ready today, it will take a few months to check for any side effects. The coronavirus you see is quite different from the viruses we knew until today, even from that of the common flu, primarily because it has the ability to survive for a very long time in the air and on the surface but also to multiply.
The first clinical trial in a 43-year-old mother
Earlier this week, it was held at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, USA, according to the Institute's official website. The experimental drug injections were given to volunteers who participated in the first phase of the clinical vaccine trial.
"We are proud that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has selected us to conduct this groundbreaking trial," said lead researcher Lisa Jackson, adding that "we are well prepared and focused on providing treatment for this treatment."
The vaccine This is called mRNA-1273 and is made by Moderna, and a new process is used to make it, which is much faster than the older methods of making vaccines. It does not contain any part of the actual coronavirus and can not cause infection. The first person to be vaccinated was a 43-year-old mother of two, Jennifer Haller.
"I'm excited that I can do something to stop the pandemic, so I'm grateful to be part of the trial," he said, adding that he was in contact with doctors at the time for any side effects and that he now expected to take a second dose. of the test vaccine.
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The Commission hopes for a vaccine before the autumn
However, there are also the most optimistic who come from the ranks of the European Union. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has expressed hope that a vaccine for the virus could be released "probably before the autumn" by the German biotechnology company CureVac AG, which has therefore received from the Commission the sum of 80 million euro. As the head of the European institution stated, "I hope that with this financial assistance we will be able to have a vaccine on the market probably before the autumn. "It could save lives in Europe and similarly in the rest of the world."
German scientists meet with President Trump
To understand the current war between states, suffice it to point out that the United States tried to acquire the German company CureVac AG, in order for them to have the vaccine themselves. This was stated by Ms. Ursula von der Leyen herself, although it is not confirmed by the biotechnology company. However, the German company had announced that until March 11, its CEO Daniel Menichela met with the President of the United States Donald Trump, the Vice President Mike Pence, members of the White House team for the management of the coronavirus and pharmaceuticals. companies to discuss the issue of the vaccine.
However, the colossal pharmaceutical company Bayer, which has been preparing the drug Chloroquine for malaria (malaria) for a long time, has also entered the "game". According to German Health Minister Jens Spann, the federal government has ordered large quantities of medicines to prevent malaria as it is estimated that it may eventually prove to be a cure for the coronavirus.