CureVac vaccine protocol: public-private collaboration success story

Clinical trials for the German CureVac vaccine carried out jointly by private institutions such as TecSalud and the Mexican government have made it clear that synergy between public and private bodies is necessary.

Guillermo Torre, Rector of TecSalud and Vice President of Research at Tec de Monterrey, explained this at the virtual TecSalud Research Rounds forum, which discussed progress made by the Herald protocol for the CureVac vaccine.

“It’s a good example of how to work in the future. The success of the vaccines is the result of successful public-private collaboration,” said Torre.

Torre explained that the way the current pandemic has been dealt with has brought to public attention the importance of the health sector in Latin American countries.

The CureVac vaccine protocol: international quality

Researchers from Peru, Panama, and Mexico shared their challenges and lessons learned, which have been key to demonstrating their ability.

“We needed to do a large clinical trial quickly. This clearly demonstrated the ability of our countries to produce results of international quality.

“Today, it’s COVID-19 and it will be something else tomorrow. The ability to create high-quality interdisciplinary groups is very important,” Torre stressed.

What’s more, he pointed out that this effort should not be a one-off, and that the big take-away from the experience was that a coalition must be formed to seek different solutions.

“When we see Latin America from the North American or European perspective, we don’t rank it equally. This process will allow us to demonstrate our technical and problem-solving capacity, which is another of our great contributions,” explained the Rector of TecSalud.

As Luis Ríos Nogales, Executive Vice President at Rational Vaccines, Inc., explained: “During a pandemic, we stop competing, that isolation we often have to protect our company’s intellectual property.

“One of the positive things to come out of this is that companies have come together for the common goal of finding vaccines or treatments for SARS-CoV-2,” he said.

Dr. Michel Martínez, head of the Epidemiological Surveillance Unit at TecSalud, explained that placing Research Centers in a hospital setting generates greater public trust and security.

“We know it’s possible to carry out high-quality, high-volume clinical research in Latin America. What’s more, academic environments are more rigorous,” said Martínez, who is also the leader of TecSalud’s COVID-19 Program.

“We know it’s possible to carry out high-quality, high-volume clinical research in Latin America.”

Experts discuss the pandemic’s progress in Mexico

Alejandro Macías, Mexico’s former Influenza Tzar and professor at the University of Guanajuato, believes that there will have to be better understanding of epidemiology.

“In Mexico, the number of deaths and cases are going down; not because we’ve done things well, but because of herd immunity.

“If we look at how many people have already been infected, we can see that probably more than 60% of the population already has immunity against the disease, either because they got sick or they’ve been vaccinated,” he added.

In addition, he said that “In future we will surely have a universal vaccine against the coronavirus that will probably be based on messenger RNA, which is one of the greatest scientific advances in the history of mankind.”

“I have no doubt that in the future, the speed at which these new vaccines were developed will be seen as one of the great milestones in the history of medicine,” he reiterated.

TecSalud’s participation in the phase 2 and 3 clinical trials

Herald is the name of the global CureVac protocol that Mexico is participating in, which started last December with 36,000 adult participants in Europe and Latin America.

TecSalud has so far recruited 5% of the total volunteers worldwide.

“TecSalud is in first place in the world for recruitment, with 1,977 volunteers, and our CureVac quality indicators are green,” explained Michel Martínez.

Mexico as a whole has recruited 6,293 volunteers, equivalent to 15.9% of the total number.

“It’s a project that’s helping Mexico to have an advanced regulatory pathway and to understand the benefits and potential risks for Mexicans,” said Torre.

Servando Cardona, National Director of Clinical Research at TecSalud, who served as moderator at the event for researchers, stressed the importance of clinical research as the best way to find cures for many diseases.

The CureVac vaccine is based on messenger RNA, a technique developed 20 years ago.

“It provides a template to the immune system, which reads it and produces the antibodies required to prevent the (SARS-CoV-2) virus interacting with the body,” explained Dr. Martínez.

Ríos Nogales added that the protocol is a Latin American effort that is unprecedented in the history of medicine.

“A project like this has never been implemented in this amount of time. Congratulations to everyone! We’ve done our bit for a better world,” he said.

Torre called on young people to enjoy their time at university while also setting themselves big goals.

“Those who don’t think big will never even get to the end of the street. You have to have big goals: that’s what allows us to achieve more than we think we can,” he concluded.

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