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Bellinzona - in the development of the vaccine to counter the ebola has lost time: the says Antonio Lanzavecchia, director of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Bellinzona, which in an interview published today by 'Blick' calls for action by the pharmaceutical industry. "THE IRB had already developed five years ago - first in the world - a method for isolating the antibodies of patients that are healed to ebola. With these antibodies may develop a vaccine or a drug', explains Lanzavecchia.
"Ebola was not, however, a theme of topicality. There were neither money, nor the interest for further research. The pharmaceutical industry wants products that are sold. The project is then finished in a drawer'.
If it had acted then, today there would already be a prepared effective. 'Producing a vaccine is not a problem', emphasizes the expert. 'The antibodies blocks are tested on animals and human beings. If it had happened five years ago we would have the vaccine or a medicine to heal the disease. We could fill up immediately the crisis regions'.
In this field is invested too little, complains Lanzavecchia. The world - he says - has money for weapons and wars, but not for important research projects such as the development of a vaccine for a disease extremely dangerous as the Ebola disease. The cost of these studies is insignificant when compared with the cost of the war materiel, stresses. Now is the development of the vaccine, that second Lanzavecchia may be usable in less than a year. 'What we could do in our institute we have. Now it's up to the other', concludes the specialist, author of more than 200 scientific publications and a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
"Ebola was not, however, a theme of topicality. There were neither money, nor the interest for further research. The pharmaceutical industry wants products that are sold. The project is then finished in a drawer'.
If it had acted then, today there would already be a prepared effective. 'Producing a vaccine is not a problem', emphasizes the expert. 'The antibodies blocks are tested on animals and human beings. If it had happened five years ago we would have the vaccine or a medicine to heal the disease. We could fill up immediately the crisis regions'.
In this field is invested too little, complains Lanzavecchia. The world - he says - has money for weapons and wars, but not for important research projects such as the development of a vaccine for a disease extremely dangerous as the Ebola disease. The cost of these studies is insignificant when compared with the cost of the war materiel, stresses. Now is the development of the vaccine, that second Lanzavecchia may be usable in less than a year. 'What we could do in our institute we have. Now it's up to the other', concludes the specialist, author of more than 200 scientific publications and a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
