Science Minister meets the team leading Chile’s CanSino vaccine trial
Minister Andrés Couve underscored the study being carried out in the Araucania, Los Rios and Los Lagos Regions, which includes the largest number of volunteers of the four Phase III trials to develop and monitor the COVID-19 vaccines in Chile. “They are directly contributing to the scientific development and continuous improvement of vaccines at the local level,” he said.
Science Minister Andrés Couve, Los Ríos Regional Governor César Asenjo, and the Ministerial Science Secretary (Seremi) of the area covering the Araucania, Los Rios and Los Lagos Regions, Olga Barbosa, met at the Science Faculty of the Universidad Austral in Valdivia, with the team leading the clinical trials of the Canadian-Chinese CanSino Biologics vaccine in southern Chile
The event was attended by Dr. Mario Calvo, Director of the Medicine Institute at Universidad Austral, and member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Vaccines; Dr. Fernando Lanas, director of the CanSino clinical trial and an academic at Universidad de la Frontera, as well as other participants and volunteers in the study.
Minister Andrés Couve noted that this is the scientific partnership with the largest number of volunteers of the four COVID-19-vaccine trials in Chile. “These teams are directly contributing to the scientific development and continuous improvement of vaccines at the local level,” he stated.
In addition, the Science Minister thanked “the more than 3,400 volunteers who have taken part in this clinical trial. They are making a valuable contribution in terms of technical support for the vaccines, helping us to learn about the vaccine’s performance in our population, and participating in its improvement.”
CanSino Biologics announced on Wednesday that the National Medical Products Administration of China (NMPA) is working on the company’s request to trade its vaccine in other countries and reported that the development is 65.28% effective in preventing all COVID-19 symptoms and 95.47% effective in preventing severe cases.
Along with Chile, the CanSino vaccine trial has gathered over 40,000 volunteers in countries like China, Mexico and Argentina. The Regional Governor, César Asenjo, highlighted “the work that has enabled the Science Ministry to coordinate and team up with the Health Ministry and the global academic community and which today means we have different vaccines in our country. We will continue working with Science Seremi Olga Barbosa, who has collaborated in different areas during this pandemic, in terms of strengthening academia, research and now applied science.”
Speaking about the importance of this clinical trial in Chile, Dr. Calvo explained “the idea of performing a clinical trial with this vaccine came from the Science Ministry’s Advisory Council. During the pandemic we’ve learned that we can work together and connect groups and this makes it possible for us to make a much stronger scientific impact than we could before. This trial has helped us obtain data, flexibility, and knowledge so we can be sure about what we are giving to the people. This is a scientific development that will help improve the population’s ability to cope with the pandemic.”
During the visit, the officials also toured the AUSTRAL-omics laboratory, the Biotechnology Innovation Unit of the Science Faculty at Universidad Austral. “Thanks to the talent and facilities located in our region, the Universidad Austral team was able to build Austral-Omics, a world-class laboratory for research and services. Remarkable scientific contributions have been made here, adapted to the pandemic’s needs, such as virus sequencing to follow-up on new variants of SARS-CoV-2, and their well-known contribution to the network of diagnoses and active tracking of cases,” stated Science Seremi Olga Barbosa.