COVID-19 vaccine development
Vaccine Development
First vaccine entered human trials on March 16th, 2020
April 2020, 115 vaccine candidates, 78 of them are actively in trial, 37 have a classified status
73 of the 78 are in preclinical stages
The vaccines that make it past this stage are advanced to clinical development
mRNA-1273 from moderna
Ad5-nCoV from CanSino Biological
INO-4800 from Inovio
Different vaccine types are better for specific population subtypes
Of Confirmed vaccine candidates 72% are being developed by private developers, 28% being led by academic, non profit organizations
Vaccine Trials
Most vaccine development is in North America, but also others in asia, australia, and europe
Vaccine Availability
Could be available in early 2021 for emergency use or similar protocals
This would be incredible considering vaccines take about 10 years to be developed, and still 5 years if it is accelerated
International coordination will be needed to make sure late stage candidates can be manufactured
equitably supplied to areas needed
especially low resource regions
Jenner Institute at Oxford University, supported by AstraZeneca
CanSino Biologics in Wuhan
Mild adverse events such as fever, fatigue, and injection site pain
No severe adversities in either
1077 healthy adults, median age of 35
neutralizing antibodies were developed in over 90% of the subjects
A second dose in some subjects boosted neutralizing antibodies even more.
Tested their vaccine against a placebo on 508 healthy adults
Average age of 39.7 years
males were less susceptible to fever side effect
294 of 382 vaccine subjects felt mild adversities, and 61 of 126 placebo subjects felt them too
neutralizing antibodies were increased in roughly 85% of subjects
Phase 3 will be to test the vaccines on much larger populations to see the efficiency and safety
because of small sample size the vaccines should be used with caution
prioritized for health care workers and people considered high risk
important that high income countries aren't selfish and make sure global distribution is equitable
Financial Component
Vaccine development is very expensive because of the many steps that must be taken
It is estimated that creating a vaccine will cost roughly $2 billion US dollars
It is vital that all governments are willing to participate in funding
a challenge is that as cases decrease investors donations decrease as well