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In COVID-19 Vaccine Race, Hungarian Village Firm Takes Global Role

Reuters

   SZIRAK, HUNGARY - In an unassuming house in rolling hills east of the
   Hungarian capital, a small family firm is helping oil the wheels of the
   world's big pharmaceutical companies on the path to a coronavirus
   vaccine.

   Biologist Noemi Lukacs, 71, retired to Szirak, her birth village, to
   establish English & Scientific Consulting (SciCons) and manufacture a
   genetic sensor so sensitive that a few grams can supply the entire
   global industry for a year.

   "We produce monoclonal antibodies," Lukacs told Reuters in the
   single-story house where she was born, now partly converted into a
   world-class laboratory. The white powder ships worldwide from here,
   micrograms at a time.

   "These antibodies recognize double-stranded RNA [dsRNA]," she
   explained. DsRNA is a byproduct of viruses replicating, so its presence
   signals the presence of a live virus, long useful in virus-related
   research.

   More importantly, dsRNA is also a byproduct of the process used by U.S.
   giant Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech to create their experimental
   COVID-19 vaccine which is more than 90% effective according to initial
   trial results last week.

   And because dsRNA can be harmful to human cells, it must be filtered
   out from any vaccine to be used in humans. Several filtering methods
   exist, but the most widely used way to do quality control is to expose
   the vaccine to Lukacs' antibodies.

   Not only will the antibodies show if there is any dsRNA in the vaccine,
   they will also tell researchers how much of it is present. Only once
   completely freed from dsRNA can the vaccine be administered.

   The result: a line of big pharma representatives outside her door.

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