Dozens of companies, from biotech start-ups to Big Pharma, are racing to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine, both to meet urgent medical need and for the potential payday. Positive results from final stage trials of several vaccine candidates have raised hopes that there is light at the end of the tunnel in the quest to curb a pandemic that has already killed nearly 1.4 million people worldwide.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified 48 “candidate vaccines” at the stage of clinical trials in humans by mid-November, up from 11 in mid-June.
Eleven of them are at the most advanced “Phase 3” stage, in which a vaccine’s effectiveness is tested on a large scale, generally on tens of thousands of people across several continents.
A European project led by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca on Monday said an interim analysis of its phase 3 trials showed their vaccine had an average 70 per cent efficacy in trials involved 23,000 people.
The statement said the drug showed a 62-per cent efficacy when people were given two full doses, but this rose to 90 per cent in those given only a half dose initially followed by a full dose.
It said the vaccine could be stored, transported and handled “at normal refrigerated conditions” for at least six months and announced plans to develop up to three billion doses in 2021, if it passes the remaining regulatory hurdles.
The announcement comes after a US-German collaboration between Pfizer and BioNTech reported early in November that phase 3 trials for its mRNA vaccine showed 90 per cent efficacy in preventing COVID-19 symptoms and did not produce adverse side effects among thousands of volunteers.
It has since announced further trial results showing the vaccine works 95 per cent of the time.
“Efficacy was consistent across age, gender, race and ethnicity demographics,” the company said.
Pfizer is currently seeking Emergency Use Authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and expects to roll out 1.3 billion doses by the end of next year.
Also this month, US biotech firm Moderna said its vaccine also showed almost 95 per cent efficacy.
Moderna plans to submit applications for emergency approval in the US and around the world within weeks, and says it expects to have approximately 20 million doses ready to ship in the US by the end of the year. The company is on track to manufacture between 500 million to a billion doses globally in 2021, it said.
In addition, several state-run Chinese labs are also thought to have produced among the more promising candidate vaccines.
Russia, meanwhile, has already registered two COVID-19 vaccines, even before clinical trials were completed.
Some methods for making a vaccine are tried-and-tested, while others remain experimental. Inactivated traditional vaccines use a virus germ that has been killed, while others use a weakened or “attenuated” strain. These vaccines work when the body treats the deactivated pathogen as if it were a real threat, producing antibodies to kill it without endangering the patient with full infection.
— AFP
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