Countries Making Coronavirus Vaccine
The world yet awaits major breakthrough from any of the countries making corona virus vaccine .It’s been seven months into this pandemic, and several world leaders and organizations are racing against time to make a coronavirus vaccine. Many organizations, pharmaceutical companies and countries, except the US, have already joined to pledge 8 billion dollars for the research, production and distribution of a permanent treatment or a vaccine for COVID-19 in addition to individual efforts taken by them. Let’s take a glance at the chief developments of the novel coronavirus vaccine happening worldwide:
India:
Scientists have performed multiple phases of drug trials of over 30 vaccines in India as per the report shared by researchers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 5th of May.
India’s Serum Institute and its multiple partners have also developed the University of Oxford’s vaccine. Out of these, Indian companies like Codagenix-Serum Institute of India, Zydus Cadila, Indian Immunologicals with Griffith University, Biological E Ltd, the UW Madison-FluGen-Bharat Biotech, Bharat Biotech in association with Thomas Jefferson University, are all collaborating against coronavirus.
Hyderabad based Hetero has shipped the first batch of Remdesivir drug– which helps slow the spread of the virus- to five states, including Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Telangana. Named as COVIFOR, this medicine has been priced at Rs 5,400. Apart from this, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has also come up with an antiviral drug Favipiravir for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms.
United States:
In the USA, pharmaceutical major Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech SE have already started delivering doses of their COVID-19 vaccine to candidates for preliminary human trials. Another American biopharmaceutical company- Gilead Sciences has prepared Remdesivir- an antiviral drug for the treatment of COVID-19 and Ebola virus infection. This medicine has already been approved for use in the USA for critically ill patients with COVID-19 and has also been authorized for emergency use in Japan. An antibody medicine by another pharmaceutical company could be authorized for use by September. Johnson & Johnson, Moderna Inc, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, CanSino, Sanofi, Inovio are several other biopharmaceutical companies that have also increased their efforts to develop a vaccine to kill coronavirus.
United Kingdom
The UK government has pledged about EUR 388 million to fund the research, tests and treatments of corona vaccine. In late April, the University of Oxford began human trials for a candidate. At the end of June, AstraZeneca has made a potential vaccine for Coronavirus, as per WHO. Another candidate, developed by the scientists at Imperial College London, in its initial trials. A biotech company Synairgen has also developed a drug namely Interferon Beta, which has been injected in patients as a part of early trials.
China
Trials for around six other candidates are taking place in China. The country states that they have received positive results from animal trials of a potential vaccine to fend off coronavirus. Sinopharm group is also working on inactivated coronavirus vaccine. The last trials of this vaccine are taking place in the UAE due to the reduction in COVID-19 patients in China. Beijing-based biotech firm Sinovac also set to launch phase III clinical trials of the vaccine in countries like Brazil where the disease is spreading at a faster rate.
Italy
Constructive news has recently come from the research lab of Italy where scientists claimed to develop a potential vaccine to stop the spread of disease in humans. The CEO of Takis, Luigi Aurisicchio confirmed for a medicine that can neutralise the transmission of the virus in human cells. Scientists from the firm Takis carried out tests at Rome’s Spallanzani Hospital in mice and found that her body generated antibodies. They believe that it will affect humans too.
Clinical trials for other candidates are also taking place in Russia, Israel, South Korea, Australia, Germany and several other countries.
As per the WHO document, currently, there are over 100 countries making coronavirus vaccine worldwide whose projects are under preclinical stages. The starting two phases of trials test happen for safety whereas the third trial ensures the medicine’s efficacy. Each phase can take months or even years to be completed.
Also, developing a successful vaccine is just not enough. Many nations will also face the looming challenge of manufacturing and distributing quantities essential to provide immunity to all people.
