Italian vaccine Reithera, here are the first data of the GRAd-CoV2
How is the testing of the GRAd-CoV2 vaccine by the Italian company Reithera going? All the details, with the confirmation that the state is ready to enter the capital of the company now controlled by a Swiss group
Italy is getting close to having its own vaccine: GRAd-CoV2 . It will be produced by the biotechnology company Reithera, controlled by the Swiss company Keires , based in Castel Romano.
Who was there at the presentation of the Phase 1 results of the Reithera vaccine
During a press conference in streaming, in the presence of the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza , and at which prof. Franco Locatelli (Cts) , the president of ReiThera Antonella Folgori , the director of Aifa Nicola Magrini , the scientific director of Inmi Giuseppe Ippolito , the extraordinary commissioner Domenico Arcuri , the data of the first phase of the vaccine experimentation process were presented started on 24 August at the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute. For phases two and three, another six months will be needed, and if the answers are in line with those obtained up to now, the Italian vaccine can be submitted to the regulatory agencies (EMA and Aifa) by next summer.
Italian vaccine: safer than Moderna and Pfizer
The scientific director of the Spallanzani Institute, Giuseppe Ippolito , explained that the vaccine trial, which began last summer, involved more than 100 people, 45 of whom were given the vaccine. "We enrolled 100 people and 45 were vaccinated with different doses and all made it to the end for the safety assessment: the vaccine had no serious adverse events in the first 28 days after vaccination , a better result than Moderna and Pfizer who have had side effects. – said prof. Hippolytus – The peak of antibody production at 4 weeks remains constant and the vaccine is at a single dose ". The scientific director of Spallanzani then added that in phase 1 the vaccine has been shown to have the ability to induce immune response in adults similar to that of other vaccines with two doses. " 92.5% of the vaccinated had detectable antibody levels and with a single dose we have results in line with Moderna and Pfizer – said Ippolito – The antibody levels are consistent with a single administration scheme and are likely to increase with other doses. Now phase 2 awaits us, for which the commitment of the State is necessary ”.
How the ReiThera vaccine works
The president of the biotechnology company, Antonella Folgori, explained how the vaccine produced in Italy by ReiThera will work. The vaccine, which will be given as a single injection, is not a genetic vaccine, i.e. it does not use any genetic material (messenger mRNA) as is the case with the Pfizer-BionTech vaccine. The ReiThera vaccine is based on a virus rendered harmless and unable to multiply, used to transport the genetic information of the Spike protein, the one responsible for the entry of the Sars-Cov 2 virus into the human body, into the human immune system. The shuttle virus used is an adenovirus, it belongs to the same family of cold viruses. ReiThera has a long experience in the field of adenovirus, and the vaccine against ebola came out of the Lazio plants. " We could aim at a production of about 100 million doses of vaccine per year " – said Folgori – "The production process is scalable and economical and when properly formulated, the vaccine is stable at a temperature between 2 and 8 degrees".
Collaboration between public and private: the state ready to join Reithera
The vaccine produced by ReiThera is the result of the collaboration, which began last March, between the Lazio Region, the Ministry of Health, University and Scientific Research, the National Research Council and the Spallanzani IRCCS. For this study, the public sector has allocated eight million euros , five from the Lazio Region and three from the Ministry of University and Scientific Research, while ReiThera has invested 12 million euros and made use of the collaboration of the Spallanzani Institute in Rome. for testing and phase one experimentation. Phase two and phase three will need additional funds. The extraordinary commissioner Domenico Arcuri said during the conference that the State is ready to enter the capital of ReiThera to ensure support during phase 2 and phase 3 of the new vaccine trial. "We want to leave our country with a research and development capacity that we did not have and the possibility of acquiring vaccine doses in a stable and constant manner over time, beyond the emergency of these hours" – said the special commissioner – "Let's try to reach some independence also in the supply of vaccines. The Government has allocated sufficient resources to finance the subsequent development of the ReiThera trial and through a public company, it will also enter ReiThera with an equity transaction . The development contracts will be used to finance research and an incremental stabilization of production ”.
The vaccine patent in Reithera's hands
At the end of the press conference, the president of ReiThera Antonella Folgori , answering a question, emphasized the Italian nature of the company that will produce the vaccine: “ReiThera is controlled by a Swiss company, Keires . But in reality ReiThera is an Italian company that works on the Italian territory, pays taxes in Italy and this vaccine was developed by researchers working in Italy ”. He also added that the vaccine patent is owned by ReiThera which has invested resources to produce "a vaccine first for Italy and then for where it will be needed". So also for other countries, as pointed out by the director of Aifa, Nicola Magrini.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/vaccino-italiano-di-reithera-ecco-i-primi-dati-del-grad-cov2/ on Tue, 05 Jan 2021 14:53:48 +0000.