CureVac abandons its initial project and focuses on another: What is a second-generation vaccine?

The German laboratory CureVac announced that it was putting an end to the development of its first vaccine against COVID-19 (CVnCoV), but in a statement it also revealed that it will focus “on the development of a second-generation vaccine”, in conjunction with the British company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

After the announcement of CureVac, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) put an end to the continuous evaluation of the vaccine data of the German pharmaceutical company – which began last February – and truncated the granting of an eventual marketing license for the vaccine in the European Union.

Both decisions have generated doubts and consultations in several countries, especially those that had approaches for the purchase of doses or where trials were carried out with volunteers. Regarding what was announced by the same company about its new effort in this new stage, another question arises: What are second-generation vaccines?

Second generation vaccines

Second-generation vaccines are sterilizers that seek to avoid contagion and that the virus dies before entering the body, Fernando Moraga-Llop, vice president of the Spanish Society of Vaccination, points out to ABC. And he adds that immunity “It will come with second-generation vaccines.”

In that sense, it is understood that current vaccines reduce the risk of serious disease, but do not prevent infection. In addition, second-generation vaccines would reduce the risk of transmission.

Antonio Carmona, researcher at Fisabio’s Vaccine Research Area (AIV), adds to Expansión that this type of vaccine will not be better or worse than those already available, but will be complementary.

Carmona stands out among these vaccines that have the highest dose availability worldwide and that “will help strengthen the immune responses of those most vulnerable population groups through their use as a reminder dose.”

CureVac withdraws

CureVac demonstrated an efficacy of 48%, according to results released last June from a clinical study conducted in ten countries, a much lower percentage than the drugs developed by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna.

It is the first time since the pandemic began that a pharmaceutical company withdrew from an evaluation process initiated with the EMA, however, CureVac cont

CureVac is now working on a second-generation vaccine with the British company GSK and, calculating that this would be at an advanced stage when the EMA takes a position on CVnCoV, decided to close this process to focus on the other preparation, which better fits with the “changing dynamics” of the pandemic.

With information from EFE

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