Coronavirus: how the Pasteur Institute hopes to find a vaccine against Covid-19

Text by: Caroline Paré Follow | Ophélie Lahccen

Researchers around the world are under pressure to find a vaccine against Covid-19. Many initiatives are taken around the world. In Paris, the Institut Pasteur is hard at work.

Publicity

Professor Frédéric Tangy is director of the Vaccine Innovation Laboratory at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. He is the author of the book Les vaccins pour les nuls , published by First. Monday, March 30, he was the guest of the program Priorité santé , on RFI.

RFI: Are research projects surrounded by complete secrecy or do the different teams communicate with each other?

Pr Frédéric Tangy: The projects are not surrounded by complete secrecy. We pretty much know who does what. We don't talk to each other every day either: everyone walks in their corner. The strategies are different, but they are almost all based on the same antigens of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

As for the Institut Pasteur, what is going on?

At the Institut Pasteur, we started a vaccination project in January using a vaccine platform that we have developed for over 20 years: it is the measles vaccine. Measles vaccine viruses are made, which express additional antigens and in this case antigens of SARS-CoV-2. It is a platform that has been proven, because it is already extensively tested in clinical trials, with which we had already made a vaccine against SARS-1, ten years ago. It had proven to be very effective in animal models. It was not developed in clinical trials because the SARS-1 epidemic disappeared very quickly.

So we started this program in mid-January. Our project was selected by CEPI, which is the Coalition for the development of vaccines against emerging diseases. It is one of about ten projects selected by CEPI. They are therefore largely funded and pushed forward. We work with manufacturers for the industrial development of products.

Many wonder why you can't find a vaccine "right away". What do you think ?

A vaccine is never found right away! Generally, developing a vaccine takes 6-8 to 12-15 years. There are very long stages of research, because as long as we don't know how it works, we have to find the antigens, the means to protect, prevent the harmful effects that a vaccine can have… We have to put everything that to the point, then make animal models. Then there has to be industrial development: industrial manufacturing in good laboratory practice is also very long. Then you have to do phase 1, 2 and then 3 clinical trials, which all take years. In this case, in this case, we are working with a platform that has been proven. So we know we can go faster. The proof: we already have 2 vaccine candidates being tested in mice, so industrial production is already starting.

We speed up the procedures. Regulatory agencies are speeding up file assessment procedures. We can also short-circuit certain clinical steps. Phase 1 tolerability and safety is absolutely necessary and fundamental. When this phase is acquired, we can perhaps, as was done during the test of an Ebola vaccine in Guinea, go from phase 1 to phase 2-3 on individuals at risk. It's the only way to speed it up.

Is it a live attenuated vaccine (such as measles or yellow fever) or inactivated? In the case of a live vaccine, it cannot be given to immunocompromised people. However, these patients who are particularly very vulnerable to Covid-19 ...

It is a live attenuated vaccine, based on the measles vaccine. This measles vaccine has been administered in 40 years to at least 3 billion children worldwide, with no adverse effects and with absolute protection against measles for life. It is therefore a very powerful tool, the industrial manufacture of which is known in all countries. It is a live attenuated vaccine, but we know its basis. It is authorized for people infected with HIV-AIDS. Of course, it is not authorized in the event of very large immunosuppression. It's very controlled.

Why are we currently hearing, in the context of experimental treatments against the coronavirus, BCG (tuberculosis vaccine)?

It is a vaccine which, like measles, induces a very broad non-specific response to innate immune responses. The measles vaccine has helped to reduce infant mortality by 60% between the ages of 0 and 5 in Africa. It is a very broad protection.

Our selection on SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus

• Doctors' answers to your questions about the Covid-19

• Listen to Infos coronavirus , our daily chronicle on the pandemic

• Practical questions:
→ What is the lifespan of the virus?
→ Who are the vulnerable people ?
→ What should you do when you think you are contaminated ?
→ Quarantine, what are we talking about ?
→ What treatments ? The effectiveness of an antimalarial drug in question
→ The advice of a psychiatrist to live well the confinement

Find all our articles, reports, chronicles and programs on the coronavirus by clicking here .

See also our contents on containment .

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Coronavirus
• Health and Medicine
• our selection

On the same subject

Decryption

Coronavirus: doctors' answers to your questions

Interview

Coronavirus: how do we treat Covid-19 patients?

Against the coronavirus, the effectiveness of an antimalarial drug in question