How Are the Frontrunners Faring in The Vaccine Race?

Summary

• One in seven volunteers of Russian vaccine Sputnik V have developed side effects
• Most vaccine candidates across the world are in their third phase of clinical trials, with promises that a rollout would happen in early 2021.
• Currently, the AstraZeneca Oxford University vaccine candidate is ahead in the race, but its progress has hit a minor roadblock in the third phase clinical trials.

With every passing day, the race for the coronavirus vaccine is intensifying as most of the major vaccine candidates in the world have entered their third phase of clinical trials. It was the Russian vaccine Sputnik V developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in association with RDIF (Russian Direct Investment Fund), which became the world’s first registered vaccine to provide acquired immunity against Covid-19 disease. Though, initial results may not be called very encouraging as one in seven volunteers, who were vaccinated with Sputnik V have reported side effects.

Talking about others, one of the leaders in the race, UK’s Oxford University Jenner institute candidate AZD 1222 had also hit a minor roadblock, when one of its clinical trial volunteers showed signs of complications, yet it is still ahead in the race. Other important candidates from Moderna and Sanofi have been able to cover some gap in the race because of it, but none are likely to roll out a finished product for mass inoculation before early 2021.

Below are six of the highly talked about candidates with their latest developments and the timeline they expect their candidates to roll out to the general public.

1. AstraZeneca Oxford University vaccine candidate – Currently AZD 1222 is ahead in the race against all other candidates, with several billions of doses of this vaccine already manufactured and stored. The clinical trials of this vaccine are going on across several countries, but the process is not expected to be completed before the end of this year because of the minor glitches in its third phase trials. The British health minister had a few days ago stated that they expect the rollout of the vaccine in early parts of the next year, after which mass inoculation drive would be launched in the country.

AZD 1222 is also one of the four candidates that the United States Government has chosen for conducting clinical trials in the country and which has received developmental funding.

2. Moderna vaccine candidate- Moderna, an American drug development company is working on an RNA based COVID- 19 vaccine called mRNA- 1273. The company's candidate entered into its third phase of clinical trials in July with nearly 30,000 volunteers participating in the trials. The company, with its partner Catalent Inc intends to make 100 million doses of the vaccine for the US market.

This company’s candidate is also one of the four candidates chosen by the United States government to conduct clinical trials in the country. The company has been awarded up to $483 million by BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority) of the United States to accelerate the development of mRNA- 1273 and produce it in large scale.

3. Pfizer BioNTech vaccine candidate- This vaccine candidate called BNT162b2 is being developed by a joint venture between American drug maker Pfizer and German pharma company BioNTech. Currently, in phase three trails the candidate of the company is also a mRNA-based vaccine and is currently being tested on volunteers in the United States and Germany and is showing a strong immunological response to the virus.

If all its clinical trials progress smoothly, the company plans to make its vaccine candidate available for emergency use as early as October 2020. If all the necessary regulatory authorisations are received in time, the company plans to supply 100 million doses globally by the end of 2020 and nearly 1.3 billion by the end of next year.

4. Sinopharm Vaccine candidates- Sinopharm was one of the worlds earliest developers of a COVID- 19 vaccine. The company has two vaccine candidates who have so far been given to thousands of people across China under emergency use protocols and has not shown any adverse effects. The first one being developed in association with the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products is in the third phase of clinical trials. The second candidate is being developed in association with Beijing Institute of Biological Products, which is also in its third phase of clinical trials.

Incidentally, one of Sinopharm’ s vaccine candidates has been approved by UAE for emergency use making the company first among its competitors to receive such an authorisation (it is unclear at this time if one or both of the company’s candidates have received the authorisation).

5. Sinovac Biotech candidate- Sinovac Biotech, a Chinese company, is developing this vaccine candidate under the name CoronaVac. It is a chemically inactivated whole virus vaccine that got consent for clinical trials in China in mid- April and has already reached its third phase in testing. Additionally, the company has also tied up with academic institutes in Brazil and Chile in Latin America, whereby volunteers are being given this vaccine to measure its effectiveness as part of its phase three trials.

In Asia, the company has made tie-ups in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, and Turkey, where also thousands of volunteers were vaccinated as part of the company's phase three trials.

6. INOVIO Pharmaceuticals Inc vaccine candidate- This vaccine candidate being developed by the American company has been named INO-4800. Contrasting to other vaccine candidates, this is an experimental DNA based vaccine which has demonstrated encouraging results in early human stage trials.

The company claims that its candidate provides long term memory immune response against the COVID- 19 virus. The antibodies generated due to this vaccine has been able to destroy not only the earlier strain of the virus but also its mutant form, which is now the more dominant form being reported in 80 per cent of the cases. Moreover, the company’s candidate remains stable in room temperature for more than a year, meaning that a significant amount of logistical cost would be saved on transporting it, rendering it more affordable. This vaccine candidate is currently in its second phase of clinical trials.

Conclusion- An early availability of an effective vaccine to the coronavirus pandemic has become a necessity now. The economic conditions have seriously got impacted ever since the virus outbreak. Though the timelines given by most companies for the rollout of their candidates are very close to each other, the one candidate who will succeed will be the one which will be cheap and reach the majority of the world population first.