Four pharmaceutical laboratories have already or will soon market a vaccine against RSV. This virus, which causes bronchiolitis in babies, can also cause serious forms in adults.
Doctors have been waiting for years, hoping for a vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and now four arrive almost at the same time, especially intended for adults. Those from GSK laboratories for those over 60, from Pfizer for the elderly and pregnant women and soon those from Moderna and Janssen.
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RSV is the virus that causes bronchiolitis in babies, but can also lead to serious forms in the elderly or people weakened by another illness. It even kills almost as many adults each winter as the flu.
A vaccine developed since 2013
It’s a race between laboratories, confirms Yann Sergerie, head of medical affairs at the British company GSK: “There is a race, yes, but the work on developing this vaccine dates back much longer. We are talking about around sixty years. It is really since 2013, the year when we discovered a particular technology , that the scientific community is on the right path to developing a vaccine.”
“There are several vaccine producers who have entered the race to develop an RSV vaccine and there are now several prevention options”explains Yann Sergerie.
“Last winter, we had severe cases, even deaths, from this infection. In some places, more than the flu.”
Dr Jérôme Barrière, oncologistfranceinfo
Dr Jérôme Barrière, oncologist in Cagnes-sur-Mer, is delighted with these advances in research against the respiratory syncytial virus: “This is very good news, here we are focusing on prevention, so as soon as we prevent things, we avoid dealing with significant costs for society.”
Each year in France, 25,000 elderly people or those already weakened by other illnesses are hospitalized and 5 to 10,000 die after contracting RSV. The stakes are enormous. Vaccines from Pfizer and GSK laboratories have already been approved by the European Medicines Agency. In France, the High Health Authority must now give the green light for reimbursement by Social Security.
No reimbursement yet from Social Security
However, the independent scientific agency explains that it will take the time to study these files and will only issue its opinion in a year. Missed, therefore, to begin deploying vaccines during the epidemic of this fall and winter, regrets Dr. Barrière:“We were told that thanks to the covid crisis, we were going to learn agility and responsiveness and well that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. It is estimated that this winter there will be between 5 and 10,000 deaths linked to this virus. While we have the tool, while it is available.”
Without waiting for reimbursement by Social Security, the GSK laboratory has decided to now market its vaccine in pharmacies, at a price of 200 euros.