What ‘plant vaccines’ look like and when might they be available

Currently, all approved vaccines against Covid-19 have been tested on animals in their pre-human testing phase, that is, from their inception to testing to ensure their safety. This generated the rejection of the referent sectors of vegetarianism and veganism. In this sense, the development of a herbal vaccine has generated expectations in these sectors.

Guillaume Dozen, a CONICET researcher who is working on the development of the national vaccine against Covid-19, specified in this note published in PROFILE some time ago that “none of the current vaccines contain ingredients of animal origin, at – beyond the fact that there may be an excipient. that yes I do ”.

Animal testing, he said, is only done “when strictly necessary, in cases where certain conditions, such as coronavirus infection, can recur in animals.”

Covid-19 in the sights of veganism: should we test vaccines on animals?

Plant-based coronavirus vaccine

In this context, the development of the Canadian company Medicago in association with the British company GlaxoSmithKline to produce the “plant vaccine” has aroused the interest of nature-oriented sectors. Although the adjuvant used in this development is not vegan, it is a herbal technology from Medicago, with adjuvants from Glaxo.

The technology is known as Virus Like Particles (VLP), which translates in Spanish as “virus-like particles”: it is about using particles that look like the virus but are not, that is. that is, they are not infectious.

This is not the first time that plants have been used in this type of arrangement. Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines were the first to use this platform, and Medicago has already applied it in two influenza vaccines.

Herbal Coronavirus Vaccine Trials Begin

Phase III of this study will be tested on 30,000 participants spread across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Argentina, where there are approximately five thousand volunteers. “The population that is part of this study, which is between 18 and 40 years old, is very particular: they come with a lot of curiosity, with a great knowledge of vaccines in general and with questions on subjects such as contraception that they should do during the process or vegetarianism, ”he told NOTICIAS Gonzalo Perez Marc, doctor who leads the project at the local level.

When will the herbal vaccine be available

“This is a very simple production and by early September or mid-August an effective result could be achieved which allows emergency production and vaccine production,” said Pérez Marc in dialogue with Reperfilar , adding that it is stored in normal temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees refrigerator.

“The expectations are very high because it is a vaccine with a platform that seems very safe, it needs to be tested in phase III and it seems to be very powerful in terms of the generation of defenses,” he said. he declares.

It is a platform that, if proven to be effective, he said, its production can be quickly ramped up. “It generates a very complete, robust and long-lasting immune response because it is so similar to the virus”, “basically vaccines are simulators, so the more you fake the disease the better the vaccine you have”, a- he explained.

AG CP