It is Abrysvo, from the Pfizer laboratory, a vaccine intended for adults over 60 years of age for RSV, the main cause of bronchiolitis in the pediatric population and severe respiratory conditions in the elderly population.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved on Thursday a vaccine against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), whose trials were carried out at the Central Military Hospital of Buenos Aires, and has an "efficacy of over 80%", according to the Argentine Gonzalo Pérez Marc, principal investigator of these studies.
"What was approved is the second vaccine against RSV, and there is another one that was approved a month ago. It is the first time in history that we have this vaccine," Pérez Marc, principal investigator of the clinical research studies carried out to evaluate the safety and efficacy of this vaccine in our country, told Télam.
A month ago, the FDA approved the vaccine Arexvy, from the GlaxoSmithKline laboratory, for the same adult population.
"Argentina was the network of centers that included the largest number of volunteers in a single country, after the United States," said the specialist, since more than 8,500 people participated.
In Argentina, in addition to the Military Hospital, three other health centers in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and one each in La Plata and Mar del Plata participated, as well as clinical centers in Salta, Córdoba and Tucumán.
"It was quite federal and with people from all over Argentina, which is very interesting," he said.
The clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of this new vaccine was conducted as a double-blind study, which means that neither the person receiving the vaccine nor the health center administering it knows whether the volunteer is receiving the vaccine or placebo.
The specialist indicated that, in addition to the trials on adults, tests were carried out on pregnant women, "which would allow children to be born with the defenses".
If approved, "it would totally change the epidemiology and the way of working in pediatrics because it is one of the main pediatric problems we have every winter," he said.
Regarding the technology that these vaccines possess, the specialist pointed out that it is a "recombinant protein", i.e. "made proteins".
"The protein that the virus will ingest is the one that triggers the immune defense response, that same protein, without the virus, you build it in the lab and introduce it into the vaccine," he explained.
He added, "the vaccine is a disease simulator. What it generates is the same immunological response that would be generated if you had the virus, so the defenses are already prepared when, at some point, you come into contact with the virus".
Pérez Marc pointed out that the study began two years ago with a "network of centers" where they first evaluated the efficacy of the vaccine for one year, and then evaluated safety, which they will continue to evaluate until the end of the year.
"We are still with the study volunteers, but we already know that the vaccine works and has proven to be very safe and with a very high efficacy above 80% for severe disease," he remarked.
Link to the full article: https://www.telam.com.ar/notas/202306/630100-estados-unidos-vacuna-argentina.html
