A Vaccine for Strep A - Big Pharma to the Rescue

The latest health scare headlines look like this:

 

....and this:

 

 

...and this:

 

...along with this press release from the United Kingdom Security Agency:

 

 

Here's where the pharmaceutical industry enters into the picture.  Here is an announcement from the University of Alberta in Canada:

 

According to the press release:

 

"Group A streptococcus bacteria, more commonly known as strep A, kills more than 500,000 people a year, and there’s currently no vaccine. Strep A can trigger a variety of severe diseases and conditions including rheumatic fever and necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease). It can also cause a handful of neurological conditions, explains Lawrence Richer, including Sydenham chorea, a disorder typically affecting children that is characterized by constant movement and can be extremely debilitating. Children and marginalized populations are disproportionately affected by strep A infections."

  

Researchers at Griffith University in South East Queensland, Australia created the vaccine by combining two of the molecules found on every strain of strep A which they hope will enhance the body's immune response against all strains of the bacteria.

 

The current trial at the University of Alberta builds on many years of investments in early-phase clinical trials.  A prototype vaccine was trialled in Australia in a pilot study and no adverse events were recorded.  This trial will include 10 to 20 patients and will first demonstrate safety and then demonstrate efficacy.  If the trial is successful, the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute at the University of Alberta, the translation and commercialization arm of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, will support a larger number of patients in Phase 2 trials.

  

If you are interested in signing up, here is a link that you can use to volunteer if you are healthy and are between the ages of 18 and 45 years:

 

 

Volunteers will make a total of six one-hour visits to the testing facility at the University of Alberta, have blood drawn at each visit, receive three total vaccine injections over ten months, agree to be monitored for 10 months and receive a massive payment of $50 for each visit!

  

And, once again and when the hard work of research is done, it will eventually be Big Pharma to the rescue when they buy the patents and then sell the vaccine to a vulnerable public at some highly inflated price!  Given the current headlines, it will be fascinating to watch the progress of the trials for this vaccine to see if it is rolled out to the public as quickly as the COVID-19 vaccines.