Last week, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher nominated Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi and Dr. Peter Hotez for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize for their work to create and distribute Corbevax, a COVID-19 vaccine, to people across the world.
Dr. Bottazzi and Dr. Hotez led the team from the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development that created Corbevax, which received emergency authorization for use in India last month.
In a video interview with Noticias Telemundo, Dr. Bottazzi said, “It never crossed my mind to look for a job at a multinational” company. I am Central American and doing nonprofit projects is my way of giving back a little of what Honduras has given me.”
“Peter and I aspire to benefit people, which is why we created a vaccine for the poorest communities in the world,” she added. “The team that we have built shares the same interest in promoting public health and, obviously, learning at the same time.”
Corbevax is based on recombinant protein, a traditional technology used for decades in well-established drugs such as hepatitis B and pertussis vaccines. It uses a careful amount of virus proteins to activate the body’s immune response, without making patients sick.
Trails have determined that Corbevax was safe and well-tolerated. The vaccine has been found more than 90% effective against the original strain of the virus and more than 80% effective against Delta.
Dr. Bottazzi said, “It’s a much cheaper process than the messenger RNA technology that Pfizer or Moderna used. We chose the most scalable, reproducible, and stable method with a yeast cell that ferments and coded it to produce these proteins. That means you don’t have any animal derivatives, everything is synthetic. In addition, anyone can replicate it and collaborate with us.”
Talking about receiving a call from Fletcher, she said it turned out to be one of the great surprises of her life.
“The truth is that I was shocked, speechless. But we are very excited and grateful because the simple fact that they have thought of us means that we are already winners,” Dr. Bottazzi said.
Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, Dr. Bottazzi, Dr. Hotez, and the team decided to use the knowledge they had cultivated during decades of research to develop a drug that would be “free for everyone,” as she often says.
She explained, “Everyone talks about equity, but nobody does anything. That is why we created Corbevax, although we are a small team and it took us longer than the large laboratories. But we knew that it would not be enough with the projects of the multinationals, if we take into account the first and second doses, plus booster and pediatric doses, we are still missing 9,000 million doses.”
“Our goal has always been to develop and manufacture cheap, durable vaccines to contribute to global health,” the Latina scientist added.
Dr. Bottazzi explained, “We are looking for this concept of making transparent alliances, without patents, with partners who have the same outlook as we do, even if that is difficult and takes us a little longer. Then Biological E, a large vaccine manufacturer in India, became interested, which promoted the development and we managed to get the emergency authorization in India. Now we are in talks with other countries such as Indonesia and Bangladesh.”
