Dr. Volker Gerdts, the Director and CEO of VIDO-InterVac, said the introduction of vaccines to protect from COVID-19 is key to slowing the spread of the infection.
VIDO developed a COVID-19 vaccine which is showing effectiveness in ferrets, and is safety testing the vaccine in animals, hoping to move into human trials by fall.
Dr. Gerdts said as the pandemic continues to spread around the world and people die, time is the most critical factor, so VIDO is making every effort at every opportunity to fast track the development of vaccines.
“Until we have a vaccine, we have to depend on public health guidelines mostly, so wearing masks, social distancing, no gatherings and all these things, hand washing and so on,” he said. “There are a few antivirals that look very promising, drugs individuals with the disease can take, to help maybe in getting you out of the hospital quicker, prevent you from going into ICU, but they’re not helping in controlling the disease overall.”
The world needs a sufficient level of herd immunity, with lots of people with a good immune response to it, and then see that the virus spread will slow. To get to herd immunity, people need to get vaccinated with it to slow the spread.
Dr. Gerdts said the world has more than 100 vaccine technologies under development. He predicts, by the end of this year or early next year, the first few technologies will start becoming available for targeted higher-risk populations and the general population over the spring and summer of next year.
He believes the technology exists to create vaccines in anticipation of the next pandemic. Still, with the infection spreading and people dying, the most significant pressure in this type of situation is time.
“Viruses, bacteria, parasites, they all continue to mutate, and, as these diseases emerge, we’re trying to catch up in making vaccines as quickly as possible, and that’s what we’re doing right now,” said Dr. Gerdts.
Research at VIDO-InterVac focuses on a more transformational approach, trying to anticipate what the next pathogen might look like and make a vaccine before the disease emerges.
“That sounds a bit crazy, sounds a bit blue sky, but science is there now that allows us to, at least and our high containment labs and our secure facilities here,” he said. “To predict how viruses may mutate and what regions of the genome, they may mutate in, and how they look different in terms of vaccines.”
That would allow VIDO to make these vaccines in anticipation of these pathogens, and when they emerge, have vaccines for them immediately available.
“So we don’t need to wait 12 to 18 months before we have a vaccine, lose millions of people and economies losing trillions of dollars,” said Dr. Gerdts. “We would be able to have a vaccine available at the time or even before a new disease emerges.”
Dr. Gerdts acknowledged this is ground-breaking, and it is transforming how VIDO develops vaccines right now. •
— By Harry Siemens