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The entire world is waiting with bated breath for the day when an effective vaccine could be found to cure the novel coronavirus. As per the World Health Organisation update, globally around 217,769 people have lost the battle against novel coronavirus till today, which is an alarming situation for the entire world and for those countries who call themselves a superpower. The United Kingdom had nearly 165,225 confirmed cases till 1st May 2020. On the same time, the United States of America has become the only country where more than 1 million infected cases have been reported. Amid the blame games between the countries such as America and China, many companies and health care institutions are making round the clock efforts to discover the cure for the deadly virus, which can be helpful in saving the vast majority of people suffering from it. To prevent infections and for the development of the Vaccine, AstraZeneca and Oxford University have announced a landmark contract.
As per the company, the agreement between them has the objective to cure the infected people with the effective vaccine known as ChAdOx1 novel coronavirus, which is being created by the Oxford Vaccine Group and Jenner Institute, at Oxford University. The company added that recombinant adenovirus vector, i.e. ChAdOx1 vaccine, was selected to create a reliable immune response from a single dosage. This vaccine does not require repeated dosages of vaccine and prevent the ongoing infection in the vaccinated person. It is claimed that the vaccine was formed from the ChAdOx1 virus, which has been tested on more than 320 infected patients until yesterday. However, the results of all tests have been positive and harmless, as well as abided. The company also revealed that the Vaccine has minor side effects such as Flu-like signs, headache or sore arm and fever.
Both the entities have reportedly stated that the collaboration was a non-profit making initiative, and only expenditures of manufacturing and delivery would be recovered. It is the first collaboration after the UK Government’s announcement of the vaccines.
The ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine also went into stage one medical trial in the previous week to determine the efficacy of the vaccine at Southern England centres. The trail was made on people were in the age bracket of 18 to 55 years. AstraZeneca Plc further revealed that later-phase trial for advancement would take place around mid of the year.
The Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, Sir John Bell, stated that this collaboration would be of foremost strength in the fight against epidemics for many years to come. He added that the two organisation would be well placed to start inoculating people against coronavirus once they reach conclusive and effective permitted vaccine.
The UK Business Secretary (Alok Sharma) also commented on this agreement of AstraZeneca and Oxford University and stated that the two organisation have taken the most significant step during this situation which could lead to the rapid production COVID-19 vaccine.
There are other prominent from the pharma space who have been making all-out efforts to come up with the cure for the pandemic. Gilead Sciences Inc, the US-drug maker, has stated that it is ready for the partnership with the pharma companies and government authorities globally. The Healthcare company, announced its topline results, stating that the antiviral Remdesivir had given positive sign in the recent two medical trails while treating infected patients. One of the trials was conducted by the US government, while the other one was conducted by the company itself. In early April 2020, the Gilead Sciences also launched two Phase III clinical trials to find the effectiveness of the Remdesivir antiviral drug in Britain to cure patients suffering from novel coronavirus. The two studies were conducted at fifteen different places in the country, mainly in England and Scotland. As per the recent details from the company, the study confirmed that infected people who were treated for ten-day with Remdesivir drug showing signs of success in clinical status as compared to those taking a five-day treatment course.
Overview of the two Healthcare companies
AstraZeneca Plc
AstraZeneca Plc (LON:AZN) is an international biopharmaceutical company, based in Cambridge, UK. The company develops, discover and commercialise drugs which are primarily used in three therapy areas, i.e. Renal, Respiratory & Immunology, Cardiovascular, Oncology, and Metabolism. The company operates in over 100 countries of the world.
Overview of Gilead Sciences Inc.
Gilead Sciences, Inc. (LON:0QYQ) is a research-based biopharmaceutical company, headquartered in Foster City, California that determines, develops and commercialise advanced drugs which are used for the unmet medical treatment. The company operates in more than 35 countries worldwide and helps the patient from a life-threatening illness.
Recent trails with regards to novel coronavirus treatment
Many countries are continuously working on getting an effective vaccine or drug, which can prevent the COVID-19 as early as possible. As per some media report, until the first week of April 2020, over two hundred clinical trials were underway on infected people for novel coronavirus treatments. Let’s talk about a few of the ongoing clinical trial, which are in different phases.
- Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine: The US Food and Drug Administration had already approved Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine drugs for curing Lupus, Malaria and Rheumatoid arthritis. It is believed that these drugs could be useful for coronavirus patients as well, as per some recent research. In current trials, it was found that Chloroquine unsettles the ability of the coronavirus to enter and repeat in human cells. Some experimental tests in China found that hydroxychloroquine could also help the patient in recovery.
- Antiviral EIDD-2801: As per the journal “Science Translational Medicine”, the oral drug, i.e. EIDD-2801, has given some positive results. It is believed that this drug is more efficient than Remdesivir drug of Gilead Sciences. In recent research, the scientist found that EIDD-2801 drug hosts genetic alterations into the virus's RNA and then RNA produces its duplicates so that the virus is not able to communicate a disease to cells.
- Trimer-Tag technology: An Australian clinical research firm, Linear Clinical Research is ready to experiment with a vaccine, which is based on Trimer-Tag© technology to fight the novel coronavirus. The trial will be done based on 'ground-breaking' potential vaccine that has been created to increase the antibodies in the human body to combat with the COVID-19 infection.
