"The trivalent vaccine consists of a single injection containing components against the three main respiratory viruses that affect the elderly," explained Gonzalo Pérez Marc.
The project to design a trivalent vaccine for the elderly will begin with a clinical trial of a new inoculant against the respiratory syncytial virus that causes bronchiolitis, of which Argentina will be a part.
This injection will contain the components against Covid-19, influenza and bronchiolitis, as explained by physician and researcher Gonzalo Pérez Marc to Telam.
"The trivalent vaccine, which in the same injection contains components against the three main respiratory viruses that affect the elderly, which are the coronavirus, the influenza virus (which causes the flu) and the respiratory syncytial virus (which causes bronchiolitis) does not yet exist, but it will exist; and that is what we are aiming at with this series of trials," described Pérez Marc.
The Head of Research and Teaching of the Maternal and Infant Department of the Central Military Hospital, Perez Marc and his team, among them the infectologist Fernando Polack, have been playing a central role in the research of vaccines against the coronavirus.
On the one hand, they were the research center that recruited the most people in phase 3 of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and, in fact, led the publication of the results in The New England Journal of Medicine.
At the same time, they are participating in a clinical trial of the vaccine known as "vegetal" developed by Medicago. This is being carried out in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil, and for which the Military Hospital contributed the largest number of participants.
The challenge of this initiative is to begin a series of clinical trials that will, in principle, test innovative vaccines against respiratory syncytial and influenza separately, which is currently at a regulatory stage.
If approved by the National Administration of Medicines, Food and Medical Technology (Anmat), studies would begin in November.
"If each of these vaccines is effective and safe, which is what we think will happen, then we will move forward in the conformation of a vaccine with all three components, as is the case with the MMR vaccine that is given to children," the infectologist concluded.
