A handful of companies are already in clinical trials, and over 70 are trying to win the race.
Some people want the economy to take flight. They cannot wait for coronavirus social distancing measures to be over. Others feel that waiting out the peak of infection is the only way safely forward. We will only really be able to go back to “normal”, (whatever that now is), when a vaccine is available to treat COVID-19.
When will that be? Numerous companies are now working on developing the vaccine that will be manufactured in massive quantities. Hopefully, this will meet the global demand for protection against the coronavirus.
Optimistic estimates are now saying we could have a vaccine available for use as early as one year from now. Eighteen months is more likely some say, and even that is a rushed affair.
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Who is working on the magic serum? According to the World Health Organization (WHO) there are now 71 companies and organizations with candidate coronavirus vaccines in preclinical evaluation. A handful are also one step further and bridging on undergoing actual clinical evaluation.
CanSino Biological Inc. from the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology is said to be working on developing a non-replicating viral vector as a vaccine. They are now in phase one of clinical trials. Moderna/NIAID, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company is developing an RNA vaccine and is also in phase one of clinical trials.
And there are others. Researchers at the University of Oxford in England are in phase 1/2 of clinical trials to test a non-replicating viral vector COVID-19 vaccine. And interestingly, scientists in Seattle at the Kaiser Permanente research facility have already started the first human trial involving a COVID-19 vaccine. They have skipped testing their vaccine on animals, something that is often done to ensure safety and effectiveness, and have gone straight to the end patient for results.
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Who will win the race is hard to say at this point. Vaccines need to go through many levels of testing before they can be approved for use by the general public. This is vital, in order to ensure they are safe to use.
There are six general stages that all vaccines must undergo. They include the exploratory stage, the pre-clinical stage, clinical development, regulatory review and approval, manufacturing and quality control. Hundreds of thousands of people must be involved in testing the vaccine to determine all the possible known side effects, and if the recipe can really work to fend off COVID-19. And this usually takes time. Vaccines such as those used to prevent the potentially deadly diseases like the measles and smallpox can end up taking up to ten or fifteen years to develop.
Will we be patient enough to protect lives? Thankfully, the need and demand for an effective coronavirus vaccine is so large that mass funding and teamwork is allowing for the process to be accelerated. What it will result in is anyone’s bet. All the rest of us can now do is grab a bag of popcorn, and keep our distance. Watch the drama unfold. Hopefully we will all benefit from the hard science soon.
