Coronavirus vaccine is an urgency for the world as COVID-19 cases continue to rise with the United States, Brazil, and India sharing the top 3 positions in terms of maximum cases of the infectious disease. While many pharmaceuticals companies are dedicatedly working for developing a vaccine for coronavirus, some of them have now entered phase-3 human trials and if results are successful, following this phase, the vaccine is expected to be released for public use. With the world eagerly waiting for the coronavirus vaccine, let's take a look at where some of the leading vaccines stand at this point in time.
Coronavirus vaccines: Oxford-AstraZeneca vs Moderna vs BioNtech-Pfizer vs Covaxin
| Vaccine Candidate Name |
Trial Status |
No Of Doses Required |
How It Helps |
Trial End Date | Expected |
| Oxford-Astrazeneca | United Kingdom |
Trials currently underway in Phase 3 |
1 |
Generate anti-bodies and T-cells |
July 2021 |
| Moderna | United States |
Trials currently underway in Phase 3 |
2 |
Generate anti-bodies and T-cells |
October 2022 |
| BioNTECH-Pfizer | Germany |
Trials currently underway in Phase 3 |
2 |
Generate anti-bodies and T-cells |
June 2021 |
| Bharat Biotech - Covaxin | India |
Trials currently underway in Phase 1 |
Not known yet |
Helps body to detect inactivated virus and trains it to recognise, respond to Sars-Cov-2 |
Not known yet |
The latest entrants in this crucial phase of vaccine development are Moderna and one jointly developed by US-based Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech. Pfizer and BioNTech announced the start of a Phase 2/3 study of its vaccine candidate BNT162b2.
Vaccine development under trial | Key takeaways
- The Phase 2/3 study will involve up to 30,000 participants between 18 and 85 years of age.
- The Phase-3 trial by Moderna will also include 30,000 participants who do not have Covid-19.
- The mRNA-1273 vaccine is designed to induce neutralising antibodies directed at a portion of the coronavirus "spike" protein, which the virus uses to bind to and enter human cells.
- The Phase 3 trial is crucial in the development of a vaccine as it can help answer the question whether it is effective enough to prevent the targeted disease.
- Vaccine candidate developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca made early progress and entered into phase trials in South Africa and Brazil.
- Oxford's vaccine results of the Phase 1/2 trials showed that it produces strong immune responses.
- Phase 3 trial of Oxford vaccine will also be conducted in several other countries including India. This vaccine will be called Covishield in India.
- Phase 3 clinical trials are expected to commence in India around August 2020 in which 4,000-5,000 patients are likely to participate.
- Phase 3 clinical trial of Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm's inactivated Covid-19 vaccine started in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
- UAE health authorities recently issued a permit for up to 15,000 volunteers to take part in the trials.
- Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac said it had received approval for starting a phase-3 clinical trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CoronaVac, in Brazil.
- The New York Times vaccine tracker also includes a Phase-3 trial by Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Australia to evaluate the efficacy of a Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine, originally developed as a protection against tuberculosis, to protect against Covid-19.
- Work on more than 165 Covid-19 vaccine candidates has started, 27 vaccines have entered human trials, according to New York Times tracker.
- The approval for the Recombinant Novel Coronavirus Vaccine (Ad5-nCoV) was granted on June 25, for one year.
- The phase-1 and phase-2 clinical trials of the Ad5-nCoV were conducted in China.
(With inputs from IANS)
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