Sweden's vaccine coordinator: A vaccine will arrive in January

Ever since mid-June, when Richard Bergström was appointed Sweden's vaccine coordinator, everything has gone at a "furious pace", he says.

- We will have several agreements ready in the coming weeks, which is fantastic in such a short time. Overall, this shows that when it comes, it does.

After the government decides that Sweden will participate in EU joint procurements of vaccines, these will take place together with seven other EU countries. The negotiating group includes, in addition to Sweden, Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain.

The vaccine or vaccines that prove to work will then be distributed among EU countries according to population.

As a Swedish representative, Bergström negotiates directly with various pharmaceutical companies to develop options - promises - to buy a number of doses of vaccine. Thereafter, the European Medicines Agency must approve the vaccine and decide which patient groups it should be used for.

- In addition, it will not only be a vaccine, but several, with different preparations for different patient groups, says Richard Bergström.

In principle, there are three ways, or platforms, that companies use in developing a vaccine. There is both a protein-based method and a method based on mRNA, ie a genome sequence, which the body reads into a protein and which the immune system - hopefully - then reacts to.

- The advantage of these is that you can produce large volumes in a relatively short time. Billions of doses within six months, says Richard Bergström.

The vaccine that Sweden is closest to concluding an agreement with is the so-called Oxford vaccine, which was developed by researchers at Oxford University, with the help of Astrazeneca. It is a so-called vector-based vaccine where you take the help of a common cold virus to get into the cells.

This vaccine has already passed the first clinical trials and is in the starting blocks for the last one as the vaccine's efficacy and safety will be tested in a larger group of people.

But one concern is that the development of these vaccines is so rapid that safety is threatened.

- That it goes fast is not about the fact that the studies are fewer or smaller, and I have faith that the European Medicines Agency does not approve a vaccine that is not safe enough.