By: Leonor Hidalgo
Director of Trust Relations and Sustainability
VaxThera
October 18, 2022. This October, INNOS—the Institute for Foresight and Innovation in Health, a joint initiative between Afidro (the Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Laboratories) and the Universidad del Bosque—published the Panorama of Health Innovation in Colombia (PINNOS).
To provide some context, I would like to quote from their website: “PINNOS emerged as a strategy to recognize, understand, and highlight the most outstanding innovations impacting the sector—innovations generated by various stakeholders within the ecosystem. Furthermore, it aims to identify trends, areas of opportunity, and the challenges faced by those who drive and support health innovation in the country.”
As part of this ecosystem, we at VaxThera celebrate this initiative. We are participating not only by sharing our work as a company—including our ongoing efforts in research, development, and innovation—but also, and perhaps most importantly, with a desire to learn from the experiences of other stakeholders.
It is worth noting the diversity of the actors included in this landscape, which encompasses startups, industry associations, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical laboratories, and universities. The report illustrates how each stakeholder, through their specific role, contributes to the development of the ecosystem.
This valuable, reader-friendly document successfully achieves its goal of providing a clear picture of the health innovation landscape in Colombia. We highly recommend reading and consulting it, as it could well pave the way for future collaborations.
Colombia: A Country for Building Health Innovation
The country has been developing an ecosystem for science, technology, and innovation that fosters the emergence of hubs; these, in turn, provide feedback to the broader ecosystem and help drive its specialization. In the health sector specifically, there are several fundamental elements: a policy framework that fosters the sector, specialized human talent, valuable networks that extend its reach beyond national borders, and—above all—a significant number of challenges in need of solutions.
There is a long-standing tradition in the health field that has continued to evolve and expand across its various components, demonstrating a strong capacity for adaptation and growth. This was evident during the pandemic, when the sector proved highly responsive in developing the innovations the situation demanded. Furthermore, we possess excellent infrastructure for research and technology development.
VaxThera: An Example of Innovation in Healthcare
VaxThera serves as a prime example of what can be achieved within the country regarding innovation in the healthcare sector and the national biotechnology industry.
- In Colombia, 100% of the vaccines administered are imported, as there is currently no local production capacity. Consequently, VaxThera’s mission is to contribute to the nation’s health security by building local capabilities for the design, development, and production of vaccines and biological products (hence the name: “Vax” for vaccines, “Thera” for therapies).
- At VaxThera, we are training Colombian talent. We are proud to state that our research team is already designing vaccines using cutting-edge technology. For instance, when we compared our “universal” COVID-19 vaccine—designed before the emergence of the Omicron variant—against that variant, we found an approximately 97% match. This confirms that the rationale behind our design successfully accounted for the virus’s potential evolution.
- Beyond our own internal developments, VaxThera has established partnerships with international companies, enabling the transfer of advanced vaccine-production technologies, such as those used for mRNA vaccines.
- Our facility, located in Rionegro, Antioquia, will have an annual production capacity of 100 million doses. It is being constructed in accordance with current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), ensuring compliance not only with Colombian regulations—overseen by Invima—but also with rigorous international standards set by regulatory bodies such as the EMA and the FDA.
- VaxThera aims to act as a catalyst, attracting complementary companies to join the biotechnology sector’s value chain, thereby fostering the creation or arrival of new enterprises in the region.
En conclusión, VaxThera como parte del ecosistema de innovación en salud, viene trabajando en contribuir desde la investigación y el desarrollo hasta la innovación con productos que le apuntan a resolver grandes retos del país especialmente relacionados con la seguridad sanitaria.
Contactos de prensa:
Eliana Siegert
[email protected]
