El 31 de diciembre de 2019 se informó a la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) de un conglomerado de casos de neumonía de causa desconocida detectado en Wuhan, en la provincia de Hubei de China. El 7 de enero de 2020, las autoridades chinas identificaron un virus, el SARS-CoV-2, como agente etiológico de esta enfermedad, a la que la OMS dio el nombre de enfermedad por coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) el 11 de febrero de 2020. En el marco de la respuesta de la OMS al brote, se ha activado un plan de investigación y desarrollo (I+D) para acelerar el desarrollo de pruebas diagnósticas, vacunas y terapias para este nuevo coronavirus.
Bajo la coordinación de la OMS, un grupo de expertos de distintos ámbitos está trabajando en el desarrollo de vacunas contra la COVID-19.
El grupo hace un llamamiento a todos y cada uno de nosotros para que sigamos las recomendaciones con miras a prevenir la transmisión del virus de la COVID-19 y proteger la salud de las personas. El grupo también da las gracias a todos por depositar su confianza en la comunidad científica.
Declaración
Los abajo firmantes —científicos, médicos, financiadores y fabricantes— nos hemos reunido en el marco de una iniciativa de colaboración internacional, coordinada por la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), para ayudar a acelerar la disponibilidad de una vacuna contra la COVID-19. Aunque lleva tiempo desarrollar una vacuna para uso general, esta podría ser en última instancia esencial 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, especialmente las poblaciones vulnerables, y nos comprometemos a utilizar el tiempo ganado con la adopción generalizada de estas medidas para desarrollar una vacuna lo más rápidamente posible. Seguiremos esforzándonos por fortalecer la colaboración, la cooperación y el intercambio de datos, que son ya una realidad sin precedentes a nivel mundial. 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 estén pronto a disposición de todos.
Signatarios por orden alfabético (en inglés)
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
- 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 (CHIR), 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
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
- 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
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