Skip to main content

When will we have a Covid-19 vaccine?

By Unknown

When will an antidote against Covid-19 finally become widely available? The answer to this question may eventually be found this month as a handful of coronavirus vaccine candidates near the end of late stage clinical trials. At least two vaccine frontrunners — Pfizer and Moderna Inc — are set to release late-stage and Phase 2 results this month.

While experts have said vaccines were likely to reach the general public in the March-April 2021, drugmakers have been more ambitious with their calculations, with some firms like Moderna Inc eyeing the emergency-use authorisation route to launch their shots by year end. In fact, Pfizer may also file for US FDA approval of its vaccine this month itself, Bloomberg reported.


There are 182 vaccine candidates in pre-clinical or clinical trials across the world. Of these, 36 are in clinical trials and nine in final states of human trials. In India, where two vaccines are in phase II trials and the one by Oxford in phase III, the Union Health Ministry has said it was expecting supplies to be available from January next year.

US biotechnology company Moderna, whose mRNA-1273 vaccine is undergoing phase-3 clinical trials in the United States on 30,000 participants, has said it might seek emergency-use authorisation (EUA) after November 25 once it had enough safety data. During public health emergencies, drug regulators allow the emergency-use authorisation of unapproved medical products or treatments.


“November 25 is the time we will have enough safety data to be able to put into an emergency-use authorization file that we would send to the FDA,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told Forbes. However, he said approval wouldn’t be expected until the late first quarter or early second quarter of 2021.

Explained: When will we have a Covid-19 vaccine?

Covid-19 Vaccine: There are 182 vaccine candidates in pre-clinical or clinical trials across the world. Of these, 36 are in clinical trials and nine in final states of human trials.

People wearing protective masks wait in line to board a bus in Mumbai on October, 6, 2020. (Reuters Photo: Francis Mascarenhas)

When will an antidote against Covid-19 finally become widely available? The answer to this question may eventually be found this month as a handful of coronavirus vaccine candidates near the end of late stage clinical trials. At least two vaccine frontrunners — Pfizer and Moderna Inc — are set to release late-stage and Phase 2 results this month.

While experts have said vaccines were likely to reach the general public in the March-April 2021, drugmakers have been more ambitious with their calculations, with some firms like Moderna Inc eyeing the emergency-use authorisation route to launch their shots by year end. In fact, Pfizer may also file for US FDA approval of its vaccine this month itself, Bloomberg reported.

There are 182 vaccine candidates in pre-clinical or clinical trials across the world. Of these, 36 are in clinical trials and nine in final states of human trials. In India, where two vaccines are in phase II trials and the one by Oxford in phase III, the Union Health Ministry has said it was expecting supplies to be available from January next year.

Here is when drugmakers are eyeing release of their Covid-19 vaccines

Moderna Inc coronavirus vaccine

US biotechnology company Moderna, whose mRNA-1273 vaccine is undergoing phase-3 clinical trials in the United States on 30,000 participants, has said it might seek emergency-use authorisation (EUA) after November 25 once it had enough safety data. During public health emergencies, drug regulators allow the emergency-use authorisation of unapproved medical products or treatments.

“November 25 is the time we will have enough safety data to be able to put into an emergency-use authorization file that we would send to the FDA,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told Forbes. However, he said approval wouldn’t be expected until the late first quarter or early second quarter of 2021.


Recent trial results: Recently, results of phase 1 trials of the mRNA-1273 vaccine showed that it was well-tolerated and generated a strong immune response in older adults (participants over 55 years of age).

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the immune response to the vaccine seen in older volunteers was comparable to that seen in younger age groups. Moreover, the blood of vaccinated volunteers contained robust binding and neutralising antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Iran, Russia Discussing Joint Production Of COVID-19 Vaccine

By Unknown
Iran and Russia's sovereign wealth fund RDIF are discussing the joint production of a vaccine against COVID-19, Russian news agencies cited the Iranian ambassador to Moscow as saying on Friday. "We are holding talks, I spoke with the head of RDIF Kirill Dmitriev, our officials have held several rounds of consultations and we announced that we will co-operate," Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali was cited as saying. Thus far, Russia has struck a manufacturing partnership deal with India, which is due to produce 300 million doses of the 'Sputnik-V' vaccine domestically. It is also discussing such partnerships with several other countries, including Brazil.
Post a Comment
Read more

Increased risks of drop out for women and girls : CoronaVirus Updates

By Unknown
The total number of children not returning to their education after the school closures is likely to be significant. The pandemic also risks jeopardizing some of the gains made since 2001 in re-building women and girls’ education following the Taliban regime.  The COVID-19 pandemic is creating additional barriers due to risks—and students’ and parents’ anxiety about risks—associated with children returning to classrooms that are cramped, with no capacity for distancing, often cold, damp and poorly ventilated during the country’s severe winters, and have no or poor hygiene and clean water facilities. The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to drive many women and girls out of education permanently. School closures due to COVID-19, resulting increases in caregiving responsibilities for women and girls, and increases in poverty and unemployment will all make it harder for women and girls to study.  These factors combine in harmful ways with pre-existing discriminatory gender norms, o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Russia's Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V available to public now: State media

By Unknown
First batches of Russia's Covid vaccine Sputnik V have entered "civil circulation" in capital Moscow, state media reported on Thursday. While details on the process were not immediately available, Russia has repeatedly stressed on producing the vaccine at the earliest, a belief met with international scepticism. Earlier this month, the Russian health ministry had said that batches of the Covid-19 vaccine were being produced for public distribution and would be supplied to different regions soon. "The first batch of the vaccine for preventing the novel coronavirus infection, Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V) developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry passed the required quality tests in the laboratories of Roszdravnadzor (the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare) and was produced for civilian circulation. In the near future the supplies of the first batches of the vaccine to the regions are expected...
Post a Comment
Read more