Covid-19 vaccine test works and Pfizer can produce 1 billion doses

July has already begun with good news and the experimental vaccine against the new coronavirus produced by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in partnership with biotech company BioNTech has shown good results in human trials.
The vaccine stimulated the immune response of healthy patients, but also caused side effects, such as fever, at higher doses.
The study was random and tested on 45 volunteers who received three doses of the vaccine or placebo; of these, 12 received a dose of 10 micrograms, another 12 took 30 micrograms, 12 received a dose of 100 micrograms and nine were treated with the placebo version of the vaccine.
The highest dose of 100 micrograms caused fever in half of the test participants and, due to side effects, the group did not receive a second dose.
After a second dose of the injection three weeks after the first, 8.3% of the participants in the 10 microgram group and 75% of the 30 microgram group also had fever.
Another symptom presented were sleep disorders. The researchers, however, did not consider the side effects serious because they did not result in hospitalizations.
The vaccine was able to generate antibodies against covid-19 and some of them neutralized the virus, which may mean that it is able to stop its functioning, but it is not yet known whether this higher level of antibodies is actually capable of generating immunity to the disease.
Pfizer will conduct further studies soon to prove that those who have taken the vaccine are 50% less vulnerable to the virus.
The news was published on the website Medrxiv, the main distributor of scientific discoveries that have not yet been reviewed by peers. The results have not yet been published in a scientific journal.
The companies did not disclose the differences in the effects of the vaccine by gender, ethnicity or age group. The next phases of the test will also be focused on the United States. If all goes well, the company expects to produce up to 100 million doses of the vaccine by the end of this year and another 1.2 billion by the end of 2021.
With the positive results, Pfizer saw its shares rise more than 4% on the U.S. stock exchange.
Other vaccines are also already being tested in humans, such as those produced by Moderna and also that of The University of Oxford in partnership with AstraZeneca.
Here in Brazil, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul and the Federal District will participate in the tests of the vaccine against covid-19 developed by the Chinese company Sinovac.
In São Paulo, they will be conducted at the Research Center of the Hospital das Clínicas (USP), Emílio Ribas Institute, Albert Einstein Hospital, São Caetano do Sul Municipal University, Unicamp Clinics Hospital, São José do Rio Preto Medical School and Ribeirão Preto Medical School.
Outside São Paulo, the centers are: University of Brasilia, Institute of Infectology Evandro Chagas da Fiocruz, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Hospital São Lucas of PUC-RS, Hospital das Clínicas of the Federal University of Paraná.
No covid-19 drug or vaccine has been approved so far for regular use, so all treatments are considered experimental.
According to the report The Race for Life, produced by EXAME Research, exame's investment analysis and research unit, research for the development of a vaccine already has the funding of at least 20 billion dollars in the world. Of that amount, 10 billion were released by a program of the United States Congress. More than 200 vaccines are currently being developed.