A new vaccine authorized in December to be used in India may help with one of the biggest issues the pandemic has yet to solve, helping lower-income countries get safe, effective, and affordable COVID-19 vaccines.
CORBEVAX, the vaccine which is solving that problem, uses old but proven vaccine technology and is easier to manufacture than most of the COVID-19 vaccines currently being used, NPR reported.
Now, CORBEVAX is being used in countries that have had little access to vaccines due to their price.
The vaccine was developed by Peter Hotez and Maria Elena Bottazzi, who, while working with Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Children's Center for Vaccine Development, helped create a vaccine during the SARS outbreak in 2003.
Hotez and Bottazzi were medical researchers at George Washington University before moving to Houston to work on the vaccine.
While there, the two helped create a vaccine candidate using protein subunit technology, which involves using proteins from a virus or bacterium that can induce an immune response to a disease. The research was promising, but the outbreak petered out, and there was no need for the shot, according to NPR.
Hoetz shared that the vaccine uses the same technology used in the hepatitis B vaccine, technology that has been used for decades.
When the COVID-19 pandemic started, the pair started looking at their old research and modifying it against the new virus. But, while Hoetz said they attempted to interest government officials, no one was impressed.
"People were so fixated on innovation that nobody thought, 'Hey, maybe we could use a low-cost, durable, easy-breezy vaccine that can vaccinate the whole world,'" Hotez told NPR.
Even though the U.S. shot them down, the two researchers continued their work in hopes of helping other countries.
"We really honestly couldn't get any traction in the U.S., but our mission is always to enable technologies for low- and middle-income countries production and use," Bottazzi recalls.
Wanting to get their vaccine funded and produced, the two turned to private philanthropies like JPB Foundation, a significant and early donor.
"The rest were all Texas philanthropies: the Kleberg Foundation, the [John S.] Dunn Foundation, Tito's Vodka," Hotez said to NPR. The MD Anderson Foundation also made contributions.
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The difference between the mRNA vaccines, from Pfizer and Moderna, and the vector vaccine from J&J, is that protein subunit vaccines like CORBEVAX have a track record, Hotez said.
The benefits of their vaccine are that it's safe, effective, and extremely cheap compared to other COVID-19 shots.
"It's cheap, a dollar, dollar fifty a dose," Hotez says. "You're not going to get less expensive than that."
CORBEVAX held clinical trials in India, and an unpublished study showed that it was 90% effective at stopping an infection from the original strain of the virus and 80% against the delta variant. It has since been approved for use in the country.
Another difference between CORBEVAX and the mRNA vaccines is that the ingredients have been made public, unlike the makers of Pfizer and Moderna who have kept their shot recipes private.
The only drawback of the new shot is that it can't be modified as quickly as the mRNA shots to fight new variants. Still, Hotez thinks his vaccine will help fight the virus on a new front.
"There's no issue with pushing innovation," Hotez said. "I think that's one of the really positive features of the U.S. vaccination program for COVID. The problem was it wasn't balanced with a portfolio or oldies but goodies."
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