The UK Government Goes in For A Second Contract to Acquire Vaccines for Its Citizens

Summary

• The UK government is close to reach a £500 million deal with Sanofi and GSK for acquiring millions of doses of COVID- 19 vaccine
• The Government’s decision to go in for a second vaccine contract seems to be a strategy to diversify risk by not putting all hopes on Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine formulation
• Several other vaccine developers across the world have also entered human trials with their formulations, prompting many governments to adopt the de-risking strategy

The United Kingdom is close to entering into a deal with Sanofi and Glaxosmithkline (LON: GSK, trading at GBX 1,635.40, up by 0.58% at 13.41 PM GMT) for acquiring millions of doses of COVID- 19 vaccine, which is currently in clinical trials stage. The deals should it materialise, will be a second such deal that the British government would be entering into in a span of few months after finanlising a deal with AstraZeneca for acquiring as much as 100 million doses for a vaccine candidate currently in a clinical trial phase with the Oxford University. The Sanofi- GSK deal is expected to be for about 60 million doses and would cost the British exchequer nearly £500 million. The UK is currently the fourth worst affected country with the coronavirus pandemic, with as many as 285,000 people being infected so far and 44,000 people losing their lives. The NHS (National Health Services) has mounted a herculean effort to contain the spread of the virus, and has managed to slow down its pace, but is still far away from the total containment. There is a feeling now among experts that the only viable resolution to check this pandemic is an effective vaccine to be injected to a sizable British population before which life coming back to normal seems difficult to achieve.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate

Oxford University's Jenner Institute was one of the first research institutions in the world that initiated a vaccine development process for the COVID-19 virus. Its vaccine candidate code-named ChAdOx1 nCovid-19 had shown promising results in preliminary trials. When it was first tried on chimpanzees, they did not show any damage to the lungs, though the virus still continued to multiply in the throat cavity. Encouraged by these results, the institute initiated the process of a human trial by recruiting 1000 volunteers. It also entered into a deal with AstraZeneca, whereby the company will now be manufacturing and selling this vaccine across the world. Encouraged by its initial success, several governments around the world, including the British government entered into an understanding with Oxford-AstraZeneca to buy millions of doses of this potential vaccine even before it is fully proven. However, as months passed by several more research groups emerged across the world who quickly advanced to clinical trials stages and were only months behind the tentative date Oxford-AstraZeneca had given for the expected rollout of the vaccine.

The Sanofi- GSK vaccine candidate

Sanofi, the French pharmaceutical giant, also has a COVID- 19 vaccine candidates in the development stage. This candidate which is being developed in association with GSK aims at making millions of doses of a powerful vaccine which could be rolled out to the public as early as 2021. This vaccine which is a little different than the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, is an Adjuvanted Vaccine, meaning that there are added boosters in the vaccine that prompts the human immune system to produce more antibodies than it would otherwise do if only the vaccine would be administered. The antigen that will be used for the vaccine is based on recombinant DNA technology that could lead to a superior human immune response compared to the Oxford- AstraZeneca vaccine. Moreover, what makes this candidate strongly placed amongst all other COVID- 19 vaccine candidates, is that it is being supported by Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), of the US through funding and collaboration.

Incidentally, Sanofi is also developing a medicine against COVID 19 along with American pharmaceutical company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals which aims as repurposing rheumatoid arthritis drug Kevzara to treat patients with severe COVID-19. This medicine is currently entering the third stage of clinical testing across many countries in America and Europe.

Other vaccine developments in the UK and elsewhere in the world

There are a number of vaccine candidates under development in various countries against COVID 19. Other than the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Sanofi-GSK candidates, some of the more important candidates are:

1. Moderna, mRNA-1273 candidate – Moderna, an American drug development company is working on an RNA based COVID- 19 vaccine. The company's candidate, which is set to enter into its third phase of clinical trials in July. It will see nearly 30,000 volunteers participating in the trials. The company, along with its partner Catalent Inc plans to make 100 million doses of the vaccine for the American market.
2. CanSino Ad5-nCoV candidate – A Chinese vaccine development candidate, it is being developed by CanSino Biologics Inc in association with Beijing Institute of Biotechnology. The candidate is a Recombinant vaccine and has already started its phase- 1 and phase- 2 human trials with results showing a strong immune response to the pandemic virus.
3. Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine candidate – This vaccine candidate is being developed by a joint venture between American drug maker Pfizer and German pharma company BioNTech. It is an mRNA-based vaccine and is currently being tested on volunteers in the United States and Germany, showing a strong immunological response to the virus.
4. Inovio Pharmaceuticals/International Vaccine Institute candidate – Unlike other vaccine candidates, this is an experimental DNA based vaccine which has shown promising results in early human stage trials. This vaccine candidate is currently undergoing Phase- 1 and Phase- 2 clinical trials in the US.

The battle against the invisible is still on, but given the efforts being put by several reputed companies and research organisations around the world, it is highly likely that more than one successful vaccine candidate will come up within a few months' time. The hurried efforts of companies and countries to get a vaccine as fast as possible has also eased down a bit as the pandemic has been showing signs of slight weakening. Countries have slowly started to open up, amidst enhanced safety measures to check the flaring up of the virus. Though, with the current state of progress being made by many of these vaccine candidates, it seems that success might not roll out before next year. Till then, of course, everyone will have to take extra precaution and learn to live with this virus.