In an interview with “Point”, the scientific director of the Institut Pasteur confirms that the first human clinical trials of a French vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 are about to begin.
- Phase 1 of human clinical trials for a vaccine against Covid-19 will begin in France and Belgium in July.
- If phases 2 and 3, launched simultaneously in July, prove conclusive, a French vaccine could be marketed in the first quarter of 2021.
Will French researchers supplant their Chinese, British and American counterparts in the race for the Covid-19 vaccine? While the first have started the second phase of clinical trials to find a vaccine against the coronavirus, Christophe d’Enfert, scientific director of the Institut Pasteur, confirmed in an interview with the Point that a vaccine developed by French researchers was going to be tested on humans from July on 90 volunteers.
Developed in partnership with the pharmaceutical group MSD, it follows tests carried out on animals “throughout the spring”. According to Christophe d’Enfert, these made it possible to “select a vaccine candidate that we know allows the production of neutralizing antibodies capable of blocking SARS-CoV-2 in vitro”.
Three test phases planned
Tested in July with 90 volunteers in France and Belgium, the vaccine developed by researchers at the Institut Pasteur uses a “attenuated strain of the measles virus, normally used for measles vaccination, and whose genetic makeup has been modified so that it produces the Spike protein which allows the coronavirus to enter our cells”explains Christophe d’Enfert.
Phase 1, which “will examine if its formula is well tolerated, if it does not cause side effects”will also allow “determine which doses are best suited to produce antibodies and immune cells targeting SARS-CoV-2”. “Depending on the results obtained, we will then launch phases 2 and 3”which will be coupled “to save time” and could begin in October, continues the Scientific Director of the Institut Pasteur.
The hope of marketing in early 2021
If phases 2 and 3, intended to verify “whether the formulation of this vaccine induces a protective immune response” and if “It protects well against infection.“, prove to be conclusive, Christophe d’Enfert hopes to market the vaccine for “the first half of 2021”.
“We went faster than we expected on the first stages. All procedures have been accelerated, but there is still a long way to go. And the road is strewn with pitfallshe warns. There probably won’t be a single vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. We know it. The idea is not to be the 30and to hit the market but in the top five. The path we are on is clear. And the processes we use are reliable.”
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