‘Some aspiring vaccine makers have had their eye on the threat that escape variants might pose from the start. A team at Gritstone Oncology decided to focus on this potential problem by designing a vaccine that targets multiple sites on several viral proteins, in contrast to first-generation shots that target only the spike protein, says Andrew Allen, president of the company in Emeryville, California. The hope is that the vaccine, which should soon start clinical trials, will make it difficult for the virus to evade immunity because many genetic changes would be necessary for it to do so. “You can either play whack-a-mole and chase the variants, or you can try to get ahead of them,” Allen says.
‘Because updating the construction of existing vaccines is relatively simple, a new RNA vaccine could be designed and manufactured for clinical testing within six weeks, Weissman estimates. But that is only the beginning. “Mass-producing a vaccine is hard. To start all over again will be hard,” says Offit. Some researchers are expecting periodic updates to coronavirus vaccines, as with flu, to become a way of life. “This is not unusual,” says Stanley Plotkin, a consultant who advises companies on vaccines. But it could mean that worries over supply chains and logistics will continue for some time.’
Read here (Nature, Jan 29, 2021)
