Brazil develops vaccine for schistosomiasis

The Foundation Oswaldo Cruz (“Fiocruz”) has announced that it has
developed a vaccine for schistosomiasis, a chronic disease found in
areas without basic sanitation. Also known as snail disease in English,
although it is caused by parasitic worms. Worldwide it is second only to
malaria in its devastating effects on the poor.

Fiocruz says that over 800 million people are subject to possible infection by the Schistosoma parasite around the world.

“It is a poor country disease that affects people who live in miserable
conditions,” explains Miriam Tendler, the head of the Experimental
Schistosomiasis Laboratory at Fiocruz where the vaccine was developed.
Tendler says that within five years the vaccine will be available for
use around the world.

The Fiocruz announcement of the vaccine follows a testing period that
included 20 human volunteers showing that it is both efficient and safe.
Tendler says it had an excellent immunological response in the
volunteers, which was very important. “But besides efficacy, we look for
safety. We have to ensure the vaccine is safe,” she declared.

Research on a schistosomiasis vaccine has been ongoing at Fiocruz since
1975. A decade was needed to identify an active principal that could
have a farmacological effect on the parasite. Another decade was
necessary to identify a protein in various parasites. As a result, the
Fiocruz vaccine will prevent other diseases caused by parasites, some
that attack beef cattle.

In the 1990s, Fiocruz registered the first patent and since the year
2000 advanced with assistance from the public-private partnership
initiative (“PPP”) with funding from a government Project Financier
(“Finep”). The assistance and funding will enable an industrial process
to be put in place for vaccine production.

Tendler says that the vaccine could have been developed a decade
earlier if financial and institutional arrangements had not been
interrupted various times. “It is very complicated to make a product
inside a [federal] academic institution,” she explains. The whole
process was so complicated that Tendler did not want to estimate the
cost of the vaccine.