WHO lists 165 vaccine candidates;
139 are under pre-clinical evaluation;
26 are undergoing clinical human trials
Medical experts across the globe are racing against time to develop a COVID vaccine which would give the world a shot at curbing the pandemic.
As of July 31, the World Health Organization (WHO) has listed 165 COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Out of that number, 139 are under pre-clinical evaluation or being studied and tested on animals, and 26 are already undergoing clinical or human trials.
Clinical Trials
Clinical trials have three phases: Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3.
Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) President Dr. Beavery Tamesis said Phase 1 is a “safety” test of the vaccine conducted on a small group of volunteers of around 10-12 people. Dr. Tamesis is also the country president of Merck Sharp & Dohme (Merck & Co.).
“ you’re trying to figure out, how many of them will develop side effects, and how many of them will develop an antibody response,” Tamesis told Manila Bulletin in an interview via Zoom.
In Phase 2 or the expanded trial, the vaccine will be tested on about a hundred people. It is during this stage that the correct dose of vaccine is being identified, according to Tamesis.
The last phase, Phase 3, is a “large-scale efficacy trial” of the vaccine, according to Tamesis. The vaccine now will be tested on thousands of volunteers.
“Some will be given the vaccine being studied and the other half will be given salt water or saline just to see whether or not there is really an effect or difference between these two,” Tamesis explained.
Six leading vaccines
To date, there are six COVID vaccine candidates that are already on the final phase of clinical trials, according to the WHO.
Three of the six vaccine candidates are being developed by China-based pharmaceutical companies – one from Sinovac, and the two are from the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, and Beijing Institute of Biological Products which are both under Sinopharm.
Also in the last phase of trials are vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and University of Oxford; Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and BioNTech, Fosun Pharma, and Pfizer, according to the WHO.
Sinovac (China)
Sinovac started clinical trials on its Adsorbed COVID-19 (Inactivated) Vaccine or CoronaVac on July 21, according to theUS National Library of Medicine’s website.
Sponsored by Butantan Institute in São Paulo, Brazil, Sinovac targets to test its vaccine on 8,870 participants.
Among counties which are testing the efficacy of Sinovac’s vaccine are Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey, Bangladesh and Chile.
Sinovac expects to complete its study by October 2021, based on data from the United States National Library of Medicine.
Sinopharm, Wuhan Institute and Beijing Institute (China)
Both the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and Beijing Institute of Biological Products are testing the efficacy of an inactivated SARS-Cov-2 vaccine, according to the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry’s website.
The Wuhan Institute of Biological Products is targeting to recruit 5,000 participants for its trials.
Trial on the candidate vaccine of Wuhan Institute of Biological Products is also being conducted in the United Arab Emirates, particularly in Abu Dhabi.
AstraZeneca & University of Oxford (United Kingdom)
AstraZeneca started its trials for its ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine or MenACWY vaccine on March 1, 2020.
Funded by the University of Oxford, AstraZeneca aims to test its vaccine on 2,000 people, particularly in Brazil.
ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 has been called “the most promising” COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the world by Brazil’s Acting Health Minister General Eduardo Pazuello.
On August 7, Reuters reported that Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has already issued a decree to set aside US$356 million in funds to “purchase and eventually produce,” the vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford researches.
AstraZeneca's trial is expected to end on October 31, 2021.
Moderna (United States)
Moderna’s investigational vaccine called mRNA-1273 is considered one of the leading candidates among candidate vaccines, according to the US National Library of Medicine website.
The US National Institute of Health (NIH), citing an August 5 research of London-based scientific journal Nature, said Moderna’s vaccine showed promise in its mouse trials.
The trial is expected to be completed on October 27, 2022.
BioNtech (Germany), Fosun Pharma (China), and Pfizer (US)
BioNTech in collaboration with Pfizer and Fosun Pharma developed an RNA-based vaccine for COVID-19, according to US National Library of Medicine website.
A RNA-based vaccine, according to the Milken Institute, is “an experimental vaccine which provides immunity through the introduction of genetic material (RNA).”
“RNA vaccines can also be potentially developed more quickly and easily than other vaccines,” it added.
The vaccine candidate entered Phase 3 of clinical trials in July 2020. BioNTech has about 29,481 participants for the trial of the vaccine which is being conducted in Argentina, Brazil, and the United States.
The trial is expected to be completed on November 11, 2022.
When will we have a vaccine?
Despite the “overly optimistic projections,” Dr. Tamesis said the most realistic progress that can be achieved by end of 2020 or early 2021 in terms of vaccine development is “getting good data.”
To be able to get good data, Tamesis said developers and researches should conduct its trials in countries where there are many reported transmissions.
“You have to identify a place where maraming virus na spreading (the virus is spreading) throughout the community because if there is no virus spreading, you will never prove that your vaccine worked,” he said. He cited Brazil, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines as good vaccine trial sites.
The PHAP president expressed hope that a vaccine will be approved “sometime early 2021.”