Info apuntando también a USA aunque en este caso es una Q&A muy interesante donde se responde también a las mutaciones y de que modo responde novavax, distribución, ventajas e inconvenientes...
** Dec 25 2020 (PART 1 OF 2) Q&A: University of Iowa Health Care recruiting for next COVID vaccine trial
And will current vaccines work against the UK mutation?
IOWA CITY — University of Iowa Health Care is expanding its role in the global effort to find vaccines against COVID-19 by beginning to enroll volunteers for another trial.
Of the two vaccines already approved for emergency use in the United States, UIHC served as a trial site for the Pfizer-BioNTech option — enrolling 250 participants for the double-blind study that vaccinated half its volunteers.
The new trial in which UIHC is participating is for a Novavax vaccine similar in some ways to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines already being deployed. But it has differences, too, according to UIHC Executive Dean Patricia Winokur, who directs the campus’ Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit.
“The Novavax is a product that is a much more traditional vaccine,” she said. “The technology that we’re using is very similar to some of the flu vaccines that have been approved in the United States.”
The product doesn’t use any of the virus itself but rather — like others COVID-19 vaccines already on the market or under development — targets the novel coronavirus’ spike protein with messenger RNA.
“Your body creates that spike protein,” Winokur said, explaining the vaccine delivers “the instruction manual for making that protein.”
“This is the more traditional vaccine where a manufacturing plant produces the spike protein.”
Q: What are other similarities and differences between this trial vaccine and the Pfizer and Moderna products?
A: The Novavax will need two doses, like the others. And they’ll come three weeks apart — like the Pfizer vaccine.
“The side effect profile might be a little lower,” Winokur said.
Q: What sort of volunteers is UIHC looking to recruit for this trial, and how many?
A: The UI portion of the trial again will aim for 250 participants ages 18 and up. Researchers, according to Winokur, are specifically interested in recruiting people at higher risk for severe COVID-19 infection; underrepresented populations; and front-line workers.
“I would say this study is pushing more of a 65 and older crowd, and also really wanting those that have high-risk conditions,” she said.
Q: How many total participants is Novavax looking to recruit and how can people volunteer to participate at the UIHC site?
A: The company wants 30,000 total volunteers, and Winokur said her team is looking for people who don’t have priority yet but could benefit from vaccination. Having just started recruiting, UIHC hasn’t started Novavax trial vaccinations.
Anyone interested in participating can send an email to
[email protected] or call
(319) 356-4848.
Q: How could this vaccine change the vaccination landscape internationally — if approved?
A: “This one is going to be a really important trial for those that are interested in understanding how we can vaccinate the world,” Winokur said. “Because this vaccine is only going to be needed to be stored at refrigerated temperature. This is going to be a much more appropriate vaccine for small practices; if you’re getting into other countries that don’t have the structure that the U.S. has.
“The other thing that they’re saying is that we need a lot of different vaccine platforms because we do think that there are going to be certain populations that respond better to one type of vaccine than another,” she said. “They also might have different safety profiles for different populations.”
Q: How many vaccine doses has UIHC received so far — of the Pfizer and Moderna products?
A: UIHC received 1,500 Moderna vaccine doses earlier this week and has received two shipments of 975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine — although the campus did get some extra doses in those deliveries, as was reported nationally.
“We were able to extend that a little bit just because there was extra dosing in the vials,” Winokur said. “So I think that by the time we finished our allotments between Pfizer and Moderna, we were going to have somewhere around 3,900 people vaccinated.”
Q: Do you know how many UIHC employees have deferred the vaccine — after being offered — so far?
A: A UIHC survey showed about 7 percent of its employees were differing.
“But a lot of those already had COVID,” Winokur said. “So it is a very high uptake in our population.”
Q: Has UIHC been testing employees it has been vaccinating to see whether they currently have COVID-19 or whether they have had it — like through an antibody test?
A: “We are not testing them,” she said. “If they have known history of COVID infection within the past 90 days, we’re telling them to wait until after 90 days to get vaccinated.”
