(publicado originalmente en el sitio de la Organización Mundial de la Salud)

-Última actualización 16 de abril de 2020 –

El 31 de diciembre de 2019, se informó a la OMS de un grupo de casos de neumonía de causa desconocida detectados en la ciudad de Wuhan, provincia de Hubei (China). Las autoridades chinas identificaron el SARS-CoV-2 como el virus causante el 7 de enero de 2020, y la enfermedad fue denominada enfermedad coronavírica 2019 (COVID-19) por la OMS el 11 de febrero de 2020. Como parte de la respuesta de la OMS al brote, se ha activado un plan de investigación y desarrollo (I+D) para acelerar el desarrollo de diagnósticos, vacunas y terapias para este nuevo coronavirus.

Bajo la coordinación de la OMS, un grupo de expertos de diversos orígenes está trabajando en el desarrollo de vacunas contra COVID-19.

El grupo hace un llamamiento a todos para que sigan las recomendaciones para prevenir la transmisión del virus COVID-19 y proteger la salud de las personas. El grupo también agradece a todos por poner su confianza en la comunidad científica.

Declaración

Somos científicos, médicos, financistas y fabricantes que nos hemos reunido como parte de una colaboración internacional, coordinada por la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), para ayudar a acelerar la disponibilidad de una vacuna contra la COVID-19. Si bien el desarrollo de una vacuna para uso general lleva tiempo, en última instancia, una vacuna puede ser fundamental para controlar esta pandemia mundial.

Mientras tanto, aplaudimos la aplicación de medidas de intervención comunitaria que reducen la propagación del virus y protegen a las personas, incluidas las poblaciones vulnerables, y nos comprometemos a utilizar el tiempo ganado con la adopción generalizada de esas medidas para desarrollar una vacuna lo más rápidamente posible.

Seguiremos esforzándonos por fortalecer la colaboración, la cooperación y el intercambio de datos sin precedentes a nivel mundial que ya están en marcha. Creemos que estos esfuerzos ayudarán a reducir las ineficiencias y la duplicación de esfuerzos, y trabajaremos tenazmente para aumentar la probabilidad de que una o más vacunas seguras y eficaces se pongan pronto a disposición de todos.

Firmantes por orden alfabético:

Randy A. Albrecht, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA

Mohamad Assoum, Mercy Global Health

Luigi Aurisicchio, on behalf of Takis Biotech, Italy

Dan Barouch, Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, USA

Trevor Brasel, The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), USA

Jennifer L Bath, ImmunoPrecise Antibodies, Canada

Sina Bavari, Edge BioInnovation Consulting and Management, USA

Maria Elena Bottazzi, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA

Gerhard Beck, Austrian Medicines and Medical Devices, Austria

Tom Brady, Flow Pharma Inc, USA

Kate Broderick, Inovio, USA

Will Brown, Altimmune Inc, USA

Scot Bryson, Orbital Farm, Canada

Ricardo Carrión, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, USA

Miles Carroll, Public Health England, UK

Keith Chappell, University of Queensland, Australia

Daniel S. Chertow, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USA

Sandra Cordo, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Wian de Jongh, on behalf of the Prevent n-CoV consortium (AdaptVac, ExpreS2ion, Copenhagen University, Leiden University Medical Centre, Wageningen University and Tubingen University)

Natalie Dean, University of Florida, USA

Rafael Delgado, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Spain

Dimiter Dimitrov

David A. Dodd, GeoVax, Inc., USA

Paul Duprex, Center for Vaccine Research, University of Pittsburgh, USA

Luis Enjuanes; Centro Nacional Biotecnología, Spain

Jeremy Farrar, Josie Golding, Charlie Weller, on behalf of Wellcome Trust, UK

Mark Feinberg, Swati Gupta and Ripley Ballou, on behalf of IAVI, USA

Antonella Folgori, on behalf of ReiThera, Italy

Thomas Friedrich, University of Wisconsin, School of Veterinary Medicine, USA

Simon Funnel, Public Health England, UK

Luc Gagnon, Nexelis, Canada

Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA

Vipin Garg, Altimmune Inc., USA

Volker Gerdts, on behalf of VIDO-Intervac, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Nora Gerhards, Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, The Netherlands

Christiane Gerke, Head of Vaccine Programs/Head of Vaccine Innovation Development, Institut Pasteur, France

Carlo Giaquinto, Department of Women and Child Health, University of Padova, Italy

Prakash Ghimire, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

Nikolaj Gilbert, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), USA

Sarah Gilbert, University of Oxford, UK

Marion F. Gruber, Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USA

Farshad Guirakhoo, GeoVax Inc, USA

Bart L Haagmans, Erasmus Medical Center, The Netherlands

M. Elizabeth Halloran, Center for Inference and Dynamics of Infectious Diseases, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and University of Washington, USA

Scott Harris, Altimmune Inc, USA

Hideki Hasegawa, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan

Richard Hatchett, on behalf of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Norway

James Hayward, Applied DNA Sciences, USA

Sheri Ann Hild

Peter Hotez, Baylor College of Medicine, USA

Youngmee Jee, Seoul National University, College of Medicine, Republic of Korea

Charu Kaushic, Institute of Infection and Immunity, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Government of Canada

Alyson A. Kelvin, Dalhousie University, Canada

Larry D. Kerr, Office of Global Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USA

Bernard Kerscher, PEI, Germany

Jae-Ouk Kim, International Vaccine Institute, Republic of Korea

Seungtaek Kim, Institut Pasteur Korea, Republic of Korea

Jason Kindrachuk, University of Manitoba, Canada

Otfried Kistner, Senior Consultant and Independent Vaccine Expert, Austria

Gary Kobinger, Université Laval, Canada

Marion Koopmans, Viroscience Department, Erasmus Medical Centre, The Netherlands

Jeroen Kortekaas, Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, the Netherlands

Philip R. Krause, Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USA

Greg Kulnis, Nexelis, Canada

Paul Henri Lambert, Centre of Vaccinology, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Nathalie Landry, Medicago Inc., Canada

Roger Le Grand, Inserm-CEA-Université Paris Saclay, France

Robin Levis, Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USA

Mark G Lewis, Bioqual Inc, USA

Joshua Liang, Clover Biopharmaceuticals, China

Jinzhong Lin, on behalf of Fudan University, China

Ira Longini, University of Florida, USA

Shabir Madhi, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Jessica E. Manning, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USA

Peter Marks, Director, on behalf of Food and Drug Administration/Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research

Hilary D. Marston, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USA

Federico Martinón-Torres, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, on behalf of the GISAID Initiative

John W. Mellors, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, USA

Ali Mirazimi, Department of Laboratory medicin, Karolinska institutet, Sweden

Kayvon Modjarrad, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, USA

Stefan O. Mueller, CureVac, Germany

Vincent J. Munster, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USA

César Muñoz-Fontela, Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, Germany

Aysegul Nalca, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), USA

José Manuel Ochoa, Altimmune Inc., USA

Dave O’Connor, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Lidia Oostvogels, CureVac, Germany

Nisreen M. A. Okba, Erasmus Medical Center, The Netherlands

L. Jean Patterson, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USA

Joe Payne, on behalf of Arcturus Therapeutics

Jonathan Pearce, on behalf of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Medical Research Council (MRC), UK

Stanley Perlman, University of Iowa, USA

Margaret Louise Pitt, WRAIR/ U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), USA

Anuradha Poonepalli, Health Products Regulation Group, Health Sciences Authority, Singapore

Dieter Pullirsch, Austrian Medicines and Medical Devices Agency, Austria

Damian Purcell, Doherty Institute, Australia

Chuan Qin, Institute of Laboratory Animal Sciences (ILAS), CAMS & PUMC, China

Angela Rasmussen, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, USA

Scott Roberts, Altimmune Inc., USA

Estefania Rodriguez, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Germany

Ted M Ross, Center for Vaccines and Immunology, University of Georgia, USA

Chad J Roy, Tulane National Primate Research Center and Tulane School of Medicine, USA

Reid Rubsamen, Flow Pharma Inc, USA

Anna Laura Salvati, Italy

Andrew Satz, EVQLV Inc, USA

Hanneke Schuitemaker and Johan Van Hoof, on behalf of Janssen Pharmaceuticals Companies of Johnson & Johnson, USA

Robert Shattock, Imperial College, UK

John Shriver, Sanofi, USA

Gale Smith, Novavax Inc. USA

Peter Smith, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK

Isabel Sola, Centro Nacional Biotecnología, Spain

James Southern, Adviser to South African Health Products Regulatory Authority

Ryan Spencer and David Novack, on behalf of Dynavax Technologies Corporation, USA.

Jonathan M Spergel, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, USA

Sybil Tasker, Codagenix Inc, USA

Chien-Te Kent Tseng, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USA, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response/Biodefense Advanced Research and Development Authority

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Jean Marie Vianney Habarugira, on behalf of the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP)

Veronika von Messling, on behalf of German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany

Tony T. Wang, Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USA

Jeffrey Wolf, Heat Biologics Inc, USA

Ningshao Xia, Xiamen University of China, China

Yingjie Xu, on behalf of Shanghai Jiaotong University, China

Paul R Young, University of Queensland, Australia

Hang Yu, on behalf of Shanghai RNACure, China

Xuefeng Yu, CanSino Biologics, China

Tal Zaks, on behalf of Moderna, USA

Peter Daszak, President, EcoHealth Alliance, New York, USA

El artículo original se puede leer aquí