The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to a standstill. The development of a vaccine is the need of the hour. It typically takes 10 to 15 years to bring a vaccine to market.
Vaccines go through a three-stage clinical trial process before they are sent to regulatory agencies for approval, which can be a lengthy process itself. Even after a vaccine is approved, it faces potential roadblocks when it comes to scaling up production and distribution. This also includes deciding which populations should get it first-and at what cost. Many vaccines also stay in what’s called phase four, a perpetual stage of regular study.
More than 150 coronavirus vaccines are in the development stage across the world. Several efforts are underway to help make that possible, including the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed initiative, which has pledged $10 billion and aims to develop and deliver 300 million doses of a safe, effective coronavirus vaccine by January 2021.
The World Health Organisation is also coordinating global efforts to develop a vaccine, with an eye toward delivering two billion doses by the end of 2021. Though it’s too soon to say which candidates will ultimately be successful, here’s a look at the prospects that have reached phase three and beyond, including a quick primer on how they work and where they stand.
1. Bharat Biotech is working on a vaccine named COVAXIN which on October 23, has received approval to start phase three trials in 26,000 participants at more than 25 centres across India.
2. The Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, a Russian research institution, in partnership with the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund has developed a vaccine named Sputnik V. Despite the lack of published evidence, Russia has cleared the Sputnik V vaccine for the widespread use and claimed it as the first registered COVID-19 vaccine in the market. Russia reported that it started phase three clinical trials on August 12; the World Health Organisation, however, lists the Sputnik V vaccine as being in phase one of clinical trials.
3. A biotechnology company based in Gaithersburg, Maryland has developed Novavax (NVX-CoV2373). On September 24, Novavax announced the launch of its phase three trial in the United Kingdom, which will evaluate the vaccine in up to 10,000 people, both with and without underlying conditions.
4. On September 23, Johnson & Johnson announced the launch of a phase three ENSEMBLE trial of vaccine named JNJ-78436735 to evaluate the safety of the vaccine and how well it works among up to 60,000 adults from a variety of countries.
5. Moderna Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based biotech company, in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health is working on a vaccine named mRNA-12. On July 27, Moderna announced it had started the third phase of its clinical trials, even as it continues to monitor phase two results. But it is unlikely that the vaccine would be widely available in the first half of 2021.
6. One of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer based in New York, in collaboration with German biotech company BioNTech is working on BNT162b2. On July 27, Pfizer and BioNTech launched a trial that combines phase two and three by enrolling a diverse population in areas with significant SARS-CoV-2 transmission.
7. The UK university, in collaboration with the biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is working on ChAdOx1nCoV-19. Preliminary results from the first two clinical trial phases revealed that the vaccine had triggered a strong immune response-including increased antibodies and responses from T-cells-with only minor side effects such as fatigue and headache. It is in phase three of clinical trials.
8. A Chinese biopharmaceutical company, in collaboration with Brazilian research centre Butantan is testing CoronaVac. July 3, Brazil’s regulatory agency granted this vaccine candidate approval to move ahead to phase three, as it continues to monitor the results of phase two clinical trials.
9. China’s state-run pharmaceutical company, Sinoparm in collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, on September 29, filed an application to China’s regulatory commission for approval of the vaccine, which could arrive sometime in October. Also in July, Sinopharm launched its first phase three trial among 15,000 volunteers-aged 18 to 60, with no serious underlying conditions in the United Arab Emirates.
10. A Chinese biopharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics is working on a vaccine named Ad5-nCoV. CanSino became the first company to receive limited approval to use its vaccine in people. The Chinese government has approved the vaccine for military use only, for a period of one year. On August 15, Russian biopharmaceutical company Petrovax announced it had launched the first phase three clinical trial of Ad5-nCoV.
Source: National Geographic
