Hipra tests if its vaccine can serve as a fourth dose against covid

The biopharmaceutical company Hipra continues to advance in its research for the covid-19 vaccine. To complete the progress made, the Amer company has started a clinical trial, with the participation of 200 volunteers and which will be carried out in ten Spanish hospitals, to study whether its vaccine can be administered as a fourth dose.

The clinical trial will be conducted with people previously vaccinated with three doses of the Comirnaty (Pfizer) vaccine ---the last one administered between the last 6 and 12 months--- and who have not had covid.

The company's trial also includes another group: people with two doses of Comirnaty plus the Hipra vaccine booster will be injected, that is, those patients who participated in the previous clinical trial that the pharmaceutical company carried out with the inoculation of its own doses.

In both cases, all volunteer patients ---each hospital has enabled a space on its website for interested people to register--- will be followed up for 30 weeks to evaluate long-term safety and immunological response.

The family pharmaceutical company's vaccine, based on the research carried out and with data provided by the company, has the ability to adapt to the main mutations of covid that are spreading and the trials carried out so far have shown that people who have received the dose develop neutralizing antibodies ---those that block the entry of the virus into cells so that it does not infect them--- fourteen days after the injection.

According to Hospital Clínic, one of the hospitals participating in this new trial, the aim is to expand studies on the covid-19 vaccine developed by the Catalan biotechnology company, which is awaiting approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to begin commercialization.

In fact, the ten Spanish hospitals will start this trial once approval is received from the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices (AEMPS) and the Ethics Committee for Research with Medicines of Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, which is expected by the end of this summer.

In this new trial, the following hospitals are participating: Clínic de Barcelona, ​​Josep Trueta de Girona, Vall d'Hebron de Barcelona, ​​Germans Trias i Pujol-Can Ruti de Badalona, ​​Gregorio Marañón de Madrid, La Paz de Madrid, Príncipe de Asturias de Alcalá de Henares, Cruces de Barakaldo, Carlos Haya de Málaga and Clínico de Valencia.

The group owned by the Nogareda family reminds that its vaccine is stored at refrigerator temperature (between 2 and 8 degrees), facilitating storage and distribution, and has started to close some commercial agreements.