What will Reithera do with CureVac and Novartis?
In the Reithera plants, a Castel Romano company that is working on an anti Covid-19 viral vector vaccine, could start the production of CureVac's mRna vaccine ("excellent idea", tweeted virologist Burioni). All the details
Italy is ready to start an internal production of the anti Covid-19 vaccines ad mRna. This was revealed by the Financial Times, stating that Rome, according to sources close to the dossier, "discussed the internal production of mRNA-based vaccines with Modern American biotechnology, Novartis from Switzerland and ReiThera from Italy". All the details.
THE INTERVIEWS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF CUREVAC
Let's start with the talks between Reithera and Novartis. According to the financial newspaper, the two pharmaceutical companies have started negotiations to produce the mRna vaccine developed by the German CureVac in Italy.
In March, "Novartis, based in Basel, signed a preliminary agreement with CureVac for the production" of the drug, specifies the Financial Times.
GERMAN VACCINE STILL UNDER TRIAL
Drug that "is still in phase 3 of the trial", even if the German company has declared, however, that by May or June it could be approved by the EMA ".
The talks "between Novartis, ReiThera and the Italian government would be at an early stage, and may not lead to a final agreement", adds the Financial Times , explaining that any production would increase the production capacity of vaccines with mRna technology to satisfy the demands of the whole of Europe.
THE REITHERA VACCINE
ReiThera, a Castel Romano company controlled by the Swiss Keires Ag and in which Sviluppo Italia (Mef) is also involved, is also producing its own vaccine, which is still in the 2/3 phase of experimentation and is based on a viral vector technology. . The drug uses a virus, usually an incompetent adenovirus for replication, to carry the sequence of the genetic code that codes for the spike protein into the cell.
The drug, during the phase 1 trial, was well tolerated and "generated neutralizing antibodies and T lymphocytes against the spike protein," writes Reithera herself.
VIRAL VECTOR TECHNOLOGY
But viral vector technology does not seem to convince Italy and the EU anymore due to the adverse reactions caused by the anti Covid-19 vaccines already in use, produced by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
Indeed, from rumors of recent days, the European Commission for 2022 could focus solely and exclusively on messenger mRna vaccines , such as those from Pfizer and Moderna, without renewing the purchase contracts with AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
A CHANGE OF STRATEGY?
That Reithera, given what is happening, is changing strategy, focusing only on mRna vaccines?
For now there is no official communication on the stop to the experimentation of the viral vector vaccine, on which the Italian State has bet, through Invitalia, as much as 81 million euros (part of the financing took place in the form of an Invitalia stake on percent in the company's capital. The remainder through a non-repayable 41.2 million euro and another 7.8 million euro as subsidized loan).
Another 8 million euros for the development of the drug came from the Lazio Region (5) and the Ministry of University and Scientific Research (3).
INTERVIEWS (FAILED) WITH MODERN
Mario Draghi's government would also have contacted Moderna as well. The premier "also spoke directly with Moderna's CEO, Stéphane Bancel", but the talks, writes the Financial Times, were unsuccessful because the American company "did not have the ability to supervise the transfer of technology necessary for Italian production sites "nor could it send" personnel with the necessary skills to those sites to increase production ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/che-cosa-fara-reithera-con-curevac-e-novartis/ on Tue, 20 Apr 2021 07:21:12 +0000.