Race for the Vaccine
Researchers worldwide are working around the clock to find a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic.
To date, just two coronavirus vaccine has been approved.
- Sputnik V – formerly known as Gam-COVID-Vac and developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute in Moscow – was approved by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation on 11 August. Experts have raised considerable concern about the vaccine’s safety and efficacy given it has not yet entered Phase 3 clinical trials.
- A second vaccine in Russia, EpiVacCorona, has also been granted regulatory approval, also without entering Phase 3 clinical trials.
Operation Warp Speed
The pandemic has created unprecedented public/private partnerships. Operation Warp Speed (OWS) is a collaboration of several US federal government departments including Health and Human Services and its subagencies, Agriculture, Energy and Veterans Affairs and the private sector.OWS has selected three vaccine candidates to fund for Phase 3 trials:
- Moderna’s mRNA-1273, University of Oxford and AstraZeneca’s AZD1222, and
- Pfizer and BioNTech's BNT162.
Pfizer and BioNTech were the first to release early findings on November 09 when they reported that their BNT162b2 vaccine is 90 percent effective against Covid-19.
There was more good news yesterday when Moderna stated that their candidate is 94.5 percent effective.
In both cases, the shot is administered twice over the space of several weeks.
Despite the positive results, there is no data regarding whether the candidates prevent the coronavirus from being transmitted as well as for how long protection lasts.
The Moderna vaccine does have an advantage over the Pfizer/BioNTech one in that it can be stored at temperatures of between 2C and 8C for 30 days, making distribution easier.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, on the other hand, must be stored at -80C, exacerbating logistical challenges.
Within OWS, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has partnered with more than 18 biopharmaceutical companies to accelerate development of drug and vaccine candidates for COVID-19 (ACTIV).
COVPN and COVAX
The COVID-19 Prevention Trials Network (COVPN) has also been established, which combines clinical trial networks funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID): the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium (IDCRC), and the AIDS Clinical Trials Group.
The COVAX initiative, part of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is being spearheaded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI); Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and WHO.
The goal is to work with vaccine manufacturers to offer low-cost COVID-19 vaccines to countries.
Currently, CEPI’s candidates from companies
- Inovio,
- Moderna,
- CureVac,
- Institut Pasteur/Merck/Themis,
- AstraZeneca/University of Oxford,
- Novavax,
- University of Hong Kong,
- Clover Biopharmaceuticals, and
- University of Queensland/CSL
are part of the COVAX initiative. There are further candidates being evaluated in the COVAX Facility from the United States and internationally.
(Disclaimer : This blog is for information purposes only)
