Caution is the mother of safety. The World Health Organization pleaded on Tuesday, August 4, for compliance with the protocols and regulations in force in the development of a vaccine against Covid-19, after Russia had promised "millions" of vaccines from the start 2021. "Any vaccine and any drug for this purpose must, of course, be subjected to all the different trials and tests before being approved for their deployment," said the spokesperson for the institution.
In this race, who are the major competitors today? Franceinfo takes stock of the competing laboratories and the main vaccine candidates, already evaluated in clinical trials on humans.
Moderna
What does this vaccine consist of? Called mRNA-1273, the vaccine developed by the American company is particularly innovative. Where a traditional vaccine uses an inactivated virus to make the immune system react and make it produce antibodies, Moderna's vaccine injects a fraction of the genetic code for Sars-CoV-2. This molecule, called messenger RNA, is responsible for making the body produce a virus protein, then antibodies that allow the vaccinated person to be protected when confronted with the new coronavirus.
Where is its development? mRNA-1273 is one of two western vaccines, along with that of the University of Oxford / AstraZeneca, to have started large-scale trials, on thousands of so-called phase 3 human participants. Results published on 28 July in The New England Journal of Medicine is encouraging: the vaccine triggered a "robust" immune response and prevented the virus from replicating in the lungs and noses of monkeys, reports The New York Times.
What supports does he benefit from? Moderna's vaccine is being developed in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and has received direct support from the US government, to the tune of nearly $ 1 billion.
Biontech and Pfizer / Fosun Pharma
What are these vaccines? Be careful, there is a trap. The German group Biontech has joined forces on the one hand with the Chinese Fosun Pharma and, on the other hand, with the American giant Pfizer to develop two similar vaccines, respectively baptized BNT162b1 and BNT162b2. In both cases, they are, as for Moderna, so-called messenger RNA vaccines.
Where is their development? The German-Chinese alliance announced Wednesday, August 5, the start of a phase of clinical trials to test BNT162b1 against Covid-19 on a hundred people in China. Biontech and Pfizer for their part reported the first conclusive tests in early July, after tests on 45 people. This project has now entered a phase of large-scale clinical trials, known as phase 3, at the end of July, with 30,000 volunteers aged 18 to 35. The goal of the laboratories is to "manufacture 100 million doses before the end of 2020" and "potentially more than 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021".
What support do they benefit from? This project is the envy of many governments. At the end of July, Tokyo announced that it had reached an agreement with the laboratories to secure 120 million doses of this vaccine "from the first half of 2021", subject to "regulatory approval" and "conclusive clinical trials" . Japan is thus imitating the American government, which has reached an agreement of 1.95 billion dollars for 100 million doses. London, for its part, has pre-ordered 30 million doses from the German-American alliance.
University of Oxford / AstraZeneca
What does this vaccine consist of? Responding to the name of AZD1222 / ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, the vaccine developed by the Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is said to be "viral vector". It uses as a carrier another virus, in this case a chimpanzee adenovirus (a family of very common viruses), which has been genetically modified to produce the spike protein (or "spike") of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus. The idea being that the patient's immune system can subsequently "recognize" the real coronavirus if it is actually infected. The advantage of this technique lies in the fact that the virus thus modified does not replicate in the body, which makes it safer, in particular for fragile patients.
Where is its development? The vaccine produced a strong immune response and demonstrated safety in patients in early stage clinical trials. Its efficacy must now be established in a phase 3 trial, on a larger number of participants, before considering large-scale commercialization. Guest of RTL radio on July 21, the boss of AstraZeneca said he hoped to deliver his vaccine by "the end of the year" if the tests were conclusive.
What supports does he benefit from? AstraZeneca has signed a $ 1.2 billion contract with the US government's Advanced Biomedical Research and Development (Barda) authority, including delivery of 300 million doses at cost. The European Union signed a similar contract in June.
Sinopharm and Sinovac
What are these vaccines? These are two vaccine candidates developed by Chinese companies Sinopharm and Sinovac. One is a state-owned pharmaceutical company and the other is private. Both rely on a more traditional type of vaccine than the ones presented above: the inactivated vaccine. The technique is based on the injection of the inert virus, which has lost all its infectious power after a physico-chemical process. Vaccines against measles and rubella, for example, have been developed with this technique.
Where is their development? The two Chinese vaccine candidates have entered phase 3 of clinical trials since mid-July. After finding that the vaccine was safe and elicited an immune response, the Sinopharm laboratory launched a testing campaign in the United Arab Emirates, with the aim of enrolling 15,000 people in this trial. The company is currently negotiating with Brazil to launch another test campaign in the state of Parana, in the south of the country. It hopes to be put on the market at the end of 2020-beginning of 2021.
Sinovac announced in June that the phase I / II clinical trial of its vaccine candidate, carried out on 743 volunteers, revealed the development of an immune response without serious adverse effects. The company has since signed a partnership with the Brazilian research institute Butantan to continue its trials on 9,000 healthcare professionals in Brazil. At the same time, the company is investing in infrastructure enabling it to manufacture up to 100 million doses of vaccine per year.
What support do they benefit from? In addition to the central power of Beijing, Sinopharm is supported by the United Arab Emirates. At the launch of phase 3 in Abu Dhabi, the UAE Minister of Health was the first volunteer to receive an injection. He also announced that he would ensure the protection of the teams in charge of the tests. Via its agreement signed with the Butantan Institute, Sinovac secures funding by the State of Sao Paulo of $ 16 million. The Brazilian state will in exchange receive doses to vaccinate 60 million people.
No French vaccine candidate?
Several vaccine candidates are being developed in France, but none has yet passed the phase 3 of clinical trials. The French laboratory Sanofi is working on two vaccines: one with messenger RNA developed in partnership with the American company Translate Bio and the second based on recombinant protein, developed with the British laboratory GSK. Both vaccines are still in the preclinical phase and phase I trials are expected to begin in the coming months.
The Nantes-based biotech Valneva is working on a candidate vaccine with an inactivated virus called VLA2001, which should enter the clinical phase at the end of the year, for availability by mid-2021.
COVID-19 Vaccine news
Please sit tight until we get early results of the COVID-19 vaccine (origin: China, UK, and USA) in October 2020.
Russia's COVID-19 vaccine is not yet ready even for phase 3 trials, and is an attempt to get in to the news.
R&D for Vaccine developement ( WHO ) -https://www.who.int/teams/blueprint/covid-19
Dear Dr. Samir!
Yes, the race is tough to develop a new efficient vaccine against COVID-19:
1) Simran Preet Kaur &n Vandana Gupta (2020). "COVID-19 Vaccine: A comprehensive status report" Virus Research, 13 August 2020, Open Access © 2020 Elsevier B.V, Available at: Article COVID-19 Vaccine: A comprehensive status report
2) Mulligan, M.J., Lyke, K.E., Kitchin, N. et al. Phase 1/2 study of COVID-19 RNA vaccine BNT162b1 in adults. Nature (2020). Published 12 August 2020, Open Access, © 2020 Springer Nature Limited, Available at:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2639-4
3) van Riel, D., de Wit, E. Next-generation vaccine platforms for COVID-19. Nature Materials 19, 810–812 (2020), 23 July 2020, Open Access, © 2020 Springer Nature Limited, Available at:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-020-0746-0
4) Dr. Michael J. Miller, Ulrich Herber and Lori Daane (2020). "
Rapid Microbiology Applications in the COVID-19 Era" A free webinar at BrightTALK-platform recorded on 4 August 2020, Further details are available at:
a) https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/10519/413804/rapid-microbiology-applications-in-the-covid-19-era
b) https://www.brighttalk.com/join/
Yours sincerely, Bulcsu Szekely
There are so many "vaccine" players, each trying to get ahead of the other. The race is very tight, for two reasons.
One, the world desperately needs a vaccine to save millions of lives who are likely to be infected with the virus.
Secondly, it makes perfect business sense to be ahead of others. After all, who will opt for vaccination if populations develop herd immunity by widespread infection?
Agreed completely. there are 3 vaccines in phase2/3 in India and many more in pipeline. The wait is difficult but essential
Regarding many ongoing efforts, the vaccine will be ready soon. However, the we are waiting to see how the virus will retaliate. vaccines are targeting the spike (S) protein of the virus in order to preventing the initial phase of the infection. So mutations in the gene encoding the S protein might make our effort futile.
There is a recent published paper which you can be informed about the SARS-COV-2 vaccine.
Article Overview of the current promising approaches for the develop...
The ChAdOx1 is in phase 3 in India. (Covaxin and ZyCov-D are in phase 2).
ChAdOx 1 is an adenovirus vaccine as a viral vector for s-protein.
The Russian claimed vaccines are also adenovirus for response to s-protein.
So, I agree with Mohammad Hossein Razizadeh.
More news about Russian COVID-19 vaccine
Deleted research item The research item mentioned here has been deleted
Russian vaccine for COVID-19
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30402-1/fulltext#:~:text=On%20Aug%2011%2C%202020%2C%20Russia,Microbiology%20(Moscow%2C%20Russia).
Question is will a vaccine be approved prematurely. Almost certainly based on risk/benefit. One can tolerate less safety given the gravity of Covid-19. So if Covid-19 is 10x more deadly than influenza does that mean we can tolerate 10x more side effects?
why don't we vaccinate by self (after infection)? by attenuating/deactivating virus within our lungs
Are there more twists in COVID-19 vaccine? Reports of transverse myelitis like illness in volunteers receiving Oxford-Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine during phase 3 trial.
Apart from bad news about short-lived immunity (maximum 90 days) after recovery from COVID-19, now it has been reported that one of the person who received the Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine got symptoms suggestive of transverse myelitis. It is also reported that another person developed multiple sclerosis prior to this (1).
Is it coincidental or a real adverse-effect of the COVID-19 vaccine? This has opened so many questions on fast-tracking the vaccine research?
Will haste lead to waste of all about covid-19 vaccine? Points to ponder. What other colleagues in researchgate (RG think about it?
https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/09/astrazeneca-covid19-vaccine-trial-hold-patient-report/
Takes years to develop a reliable vaccine. Don't think rushing is a good idea as we are unaware about long term side effects on the body.
Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine is now under rapid review by the FDA for use soon following claims that it is >95% effective.
Still the twists are:
1. The sub-zero temperature (-70 C) for the stability of the vaccine
2. Production versus the global demand
3. The actual duration of protection against COVID-19
The Oxford vaccine has been reported to be associated with a high incidence of side effects including fever. Vaccination may strain already challenged healthcare systems further when those who have been vaccinated present to emergency departments with fevers and will inevitably be tested for COVID-19...
COVID-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna are for FDA early use authorization.
Moderna may be winning the race because while equally effective, it can be stored in a normal refrigerator.
Nice post with lot of unknown significant information... Thanks for the post.
Vaccines are currently the only way to limit the infection. But there are too many negative opinions against vaccines. Even people without primary education express opinions (negative), people who do not understand anything but are "against" and write "competently" on social networks. False "facts" are written. Fake news is the main reason why society has not yet dealt with the epidemic. This prevents all of humanity from solving this serious problem.
Please check our slide prooving the existance of common "Zero source" of the current COVID-19 pandemic. The rest works concerning the issue can be found in my profile.
Poster Evidence from Astrobiology for COVID-19 cosmic origin
COVID-19 vaccine is a reality now. I'm already vaccinated with "Covishield", a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
A small initial safety data showing safety
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350520642_The_initial_experience_of_COVID-19_vaccination_from_a_tertiary_care_centre_of_India_Ahead_of_print
India is vaccinating with covaxin ( inactivated) and covishield (adeno virus carrier) on a large scale. Hoping to have a curb on rise in cases and severity
Why would one provide "vaccine" to those who got natural infection and survived? (I am unclear on how we could beat wild disease with "vaccine" and feel as if there is just a presentation of different statistics and alteration of data result to provide "encouraging" results of "trials".)
@Allen Orehek
Dose regimen of COVID-19 vaccines: One size does not fit all!
The immunity from COVID-19 vaccination is variable according to whether person recovered from a mild, moderate or severe COVID-19 or is immunocompetent or immunosuppressed by an underlying disease or immunosuppressant drugs. Whereas even one dose of COVID-19 vaccine may boost the immunity of a previously infected COVID-19 patient, even 3 doses of this vaccine are not sufficient in immunosuppressed persons.
1. Article Rapid Decay of Anti–SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Persons with Mi...
2. Article SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Response in Persons with Past Natural Infection
3. Article Three Doses of an mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine in Solid-Organ Trans...
Clarification of my above statements on 13th September 2020.
Virus deactivation in tissues by NaCl is already well-established by many researchers. Continuous dry heating of bulk of salt in an iron pan leads to micronized NaCl structure and enables it to fly into the pulmonary system. Please do not confuse with Halotherapy or NaCl fume inhalation, in that NaCl crystals are breaking into the size of less than 3μm PMID: 26551167. Micronized salt structure will be much higher than 3μm. If we inhale micronized salt through the mouth, like inhaling bronchodilators drugs in case of asthma, it may reach the pulmonary system. Please also do not confuse with saline or salt water gargling, we can’t take saline water in our pulmonary system.
Because the vaccines designed using a traditional approach are taking so much time to cope up with the increasing demand, it would be great if we start looking into alternatives like peptide vaccines. Here is an article for designing such for SARS-CoV-2.
Article New Computational Approach for Peptide Vaccine Design Agains...
Whereas in Canada there is no talk or information about the adverse effects of the vaccines, there is a new TV channel in Greece devoted to these adverse effects!
It appears there is a growing number of doctors and specialists in Greece doubting the usefulness of the vaccines. In fact , they ask the question: If people knew about the adverse effects, would they continue to get the vaccine?
Some people who got the vaccines already say that they wished they knew about these effects prior. Then the government's motto "get the vaccine or lose your job" becomes suspicious to say the least.
The "vaccines" research is anybody who gets it.
Unfortunately only the European Union is studying the effects of the vaccines, but don't report much information yet. You need to consult doctors NOT health officials.
This video may give you vision .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yjc0nnTVkQ
Prevention is better than cure . We should beleive on herbal suppliment rather than synthetic vaccine . https://www.researchgate.net/post/Herbs-medicinal_use