A returnee scientist

Remember Father Nicanor Austriaco?

Throughout the COVID lockdowns, the Catholic priest with a doctorate in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology became one of the faces of the pandemic response, alongside the other rock stars of the OCTA Research Group: mathematician Guido David and political scientist Ranjit Rye.

During one of those red-eye pandemic briefings, Father Nic’s explanations so impressed Rodrigo Duterte that the then president said he should appoint the priest as health secretary.

I don’t think it was a complete joke from the mischievous Duterte, but Father Nic managed to extricate himself gracefully from that awkward situation.

What Father Nic accepted was inclusion in the Balik-Scientist program of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Based for many years now in Rhode Island where he teaches biology and theology at Providence College, Father Nic decided to return to the land of his birth to develop a yeast-based oral vaccine against COVID.

With the DOST backing his R&D, and being a Balik-Scientist with national renown who managed to impress Duterte, you’d think Father Nic would have had an easy time in his groundbreaking work.

Instead, after about two years of toil, Father Nic is beginning to sound exasperated with bureaucratic hurdles.

“Everything is slower in the Philippines,” Father Nic sighed to “The Chiefs” last week on Cignal TV’s One News channel. He cited “a lot more paperwork, a lot more signatures, but it’s inherently meaningful for me to return to my homeland.”

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It was the first time that we had talked with Father Nic in months – still by Zoom, because he was in the US, where he was scheduled to officiate a wedding and had received his bivalent shot just nine hours prior to our interview.

His assessments of the behavior of SARS-CoV-2 – from the original, which he calls the Wuhan strain, to the current Omicron variant and its highly infectious subvariants – have been generally spot-on.

Now that (as he had projected), COVID-19 is approaching endemicity, is he still pursuing his R&D on the yeast-based oral vaccine?

Yes, he is; in fact Father Nic is currently setting up a research lab at the University of Sto. Tomas, where he is a visiting professor of biological sciences. Funding comes from the DOST (P4.4 million) and UST (P6 million), but the R&D can use significantly more funding contributions.

“I’m building the infrastructure literally from the bottom up,” he said.

I’ve talked with several executives of Big Pharma, in Manila and in their headquarters in Europe. They all stressed that the cost of developing a single drug – from conception in the laboratory to clinical trials to final approval for commercial release – can run into nine figures.

This should give you an idea of the heroic effort being undertaken by Father Nic, to produce on a shoestring budget an affordable oral vaccine based on yeast.

He explains that the Philippines lacks the biosafety lab needed to produce traditional and mRNA vaccines, which can ensure that no live virus will escape the premises, the way the original SARS-CoV-2 is suspected to have escaped from such a lab in China’s Wuhan City, bringing Armageddon to the planet.

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This is one of the reasons why Father Nic is exploring the use of yeast for vaccine production. Yeast – yes, like the yeast used for bread and beer making – is safer, stable and easily obtainable in the Philippines. Animal testing of the candidate vaccine has to be carried out in the US where there are biosafety labs.

“We know that our candidate virus is able to elicit an immune response in mice,” he said, explaining that mice and human immune systems are similar. “We’re working to enhance that response.”

He’s still scrounging for additional funding. In the US, he points out, this kind of R&D would have easily attracted start-up funds.

It also takes him months to order R&D stuff from abroad. In the US, he calls 1-800 to order what he needs, and two days later it is delivered to the lab. In the Philippines, he needs a purchase order and the shipment will have to be cleared through Customs. He’s still studying Philippine Food and Drug Administration rules.

He’s soldiering on nevertheless, because he’s hoping to produce widely available vaccines at a fraction of the prices offered by large foreign companies, not only for COVID but also for other vaccine-preventable diseases in both humans and animals, such as African swine fever.

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Father Nic is also aiming for a more user-friendly packaging that he hopes will reduce vaccine resistance: a sachet of powdered vaccine that can be dissolved in a cold drink, or (why not since it’s yeast-based) even incorporated into non-alcoholic beer.

What about vaccine in 3-in-1 coffee? Heat kills yeast, he says, but it might work for Frappuccino.

As for the cost of the vaccine, he estimates that for a comparable shot produced by Moderna for $136, his jab could cost only about $5.

“I’m doing it for the poorest of the poor in the Philippines so we’re going to push for the lowest price point that’s economically viable,” he told us. “I have a vow of poverty… which I’ve lived now for 25 years… and so money should not be my god.”

That should be enough incentive for the government and angel investors to support his R&D.

Asked about his timeline for rolling out the vaccine, he replied: “It’s more fun in the Philippines. I don’t know… I am trained to think in an American context.”

Father Nic could joke with us about a beer vaccine, but the challenges he faces are no joking matter.

In the early days of the pandemic, he had chanced upon a jeepney driver who was forced to live in his jeepney with his wife and three children because the lockdowns had taken away his livelihood. It was the reason Father Nic decided to return home as a Balik-Scientist.

“I realized the pandemic most affected the poorest of the poor and they deserve the best that science can give them,” he told us. “I am a Christian. I told the Lord it’s for Him. I told Mama Mary this is Her vaccine.”

Now if Father Nic could only hurdle the Philippine bureaucracy.