“He does everything that should not be done. "Let them go, without funding, they will never get there." Competition among researchers is palpable, even on the phone. A few tackles that alone reveal the immensity of the issues. According to figures announced on Monday April 6, the Covid-19 caused an additional 605 deaths in French hospitals in the previous 24 hours, a new record. And more than 70,000 have died worldwide since the start of the epidemic. Who will find the famous antidote, the vaccine that will bring down the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that is causing the pandemic?
In barely three months, around fifty projects were launched, led by the American biotech Moderna, the German CureVac laboratory, but also several Chinese companies. "Everything is moving very quickly," notes Olivier Schwartz, head of the Virus and Immunity unit at the Pasteur Institute. But it is still too early to say whether the two clinical trials currently being tested on humans will be effective. "
VIDEO. Coronavirus: Olivier Véran announces 605 additional deaths in hospital
In French laboratories too, researchers are making progress. Human tests are also planned for the fall. “We are working on the measles vaccine that we have known for 40 years and which is one of the best in the world. Inside, we added genetic information about the coronavirus, "explains Frédéric Tangy, head of the vaccine innovation laboratory at the Institut Pasteur, whose research program is funded with eight others by the Coalition for Innovations in for epidemic preparedness (Cepi).
"A vaccine by the end of 2020 - early 2021"
These scientists are already ahead, since in 2003, they had applied the same approach for SARS, the cousin of the current coronavirus. And she had proven to be a winner. “This first vaccine had shown 100% protection in animals, but we could not test it in humans because the epidemic had stopped. This time, everyone intends to go all the way. "We could have a vaccine by the end of 2020-early 2021," says Frédéric Tangy.
Other strategies exist: inject the virus in an “attenuated” form without it being dangerous for humans or downright “inactivated”, as is already done for measles and influenza respectively. Other possibilities: introduce pieces of the virus or its genetic code into a vaccine. Each time, the body reacts, makes antibodies and could thus be protected when the enemy lands.
But according to Professor Jean-Daniel Lelièvre, whose team at Mondor Hospital, in Créteil (Val-de-Marne), is also working on a vaccine candidate, "there are not many calls for tenders", unlike drug research. Inevitably, you have to wait 12 to 18 months to get the famous sesame, while there is urgency to find a remedy against Covid-19. "It is precisely for this reason that we must get started right away," rebounds the infectious disease specialist. In the pandemic phase, the only drugs will not block the disease. "
Much simpler than AIDS
But will we get there? No HIV vaccine has ever been found. "There it is different. Take a simple example, without treatment, 99% die of AIDS. Immunity doesn't protect, that's why it's so hard to find a vaccine. On the contrary, in the case of the coronavirus, more than 95% cure it naturally. It’s much simpler. "
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According to Professor Lelièvre, we are not facing a "complicated" virus, which is constantly mutating, like the flu. "To find a vaccine, Europe must wake up a bit and we must all work together, also with Africa, which lacks masks, tests and for whom resuscitation care is complex. They are the ones who will need it first. "
And if the epidemic ends before it is found, will the vaccine still be useful? "It can still be used in areas where people have been less immune," says Astrid Vabret, head of the virology department of the Caen CHU (Calvados). And if another coronavirus appears, research will always be useful, as we saw during the Ebola epidemic which killed 11,000 people in 2016. At the time, researchers had finally found one. When it re-declared itself last year in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo, editor's note) , vaccination was successfully carried out. "