COVID-19: What is the Worldwide Status of Vaccine Development?
COVID-19 brought with it various issues that were unprecedented for any kind of epidemic. Among them, is the race for a vaccine. Many countries are now engaged in vaccine development against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that caused the pandemic.
Two vaccine candidates from India have also advanced to the first stage of clinical trials, namely COVAXIN and ZyCov-D. There has been a wide debate about the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) letter which said that COVAXIN should be launched as early as 15th August. However, after a furore surrounding the same, ICMR clarified that the August 15 deadline is not for launching the vaccine, but for declaring the results of the clinical trials to the public. Clinical trials are set to begin in July.
An analysis of the worldwide scenario of vaccine development tells us that as of July 2, there have been 18 candidate vaccines in various stages of clinical trials, as per WHO’s draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines. The only candidate vaccine that has gone to phase three of clinical trials is the one developed by Oxford University, called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19.
If we go by the country-wide progress of vaccine development, China has the highest number of vaccine developers that have gone to phase one or phase two of clinical trials. China has seven candidate vaccines under clinical trials, the USA has three, the UK has two, with Australia, Russia, Korea and Germany at one each. It is to be mentioned here that aside from these, there are joint efforts among different countries to develop candidate vaccines which are in clinical trials in different countries.
| Country | Developer | Type of Candidate Vaccine | Current stage of Clinical Trial |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 1. CanSino Biological Inc./Beijing Institute of Biotechnology | Adenovirus Type 5 Vector | Phase2 and 1 |
| 2. Wuhan Institute of Biological Products/Sinopharm | Inactivated | Phase 2 and 1 | |
| 3. Beijing Institute of Biological Products/Sinopharm | Inactivated | Phase 2 and 1 | |
| 4. Sinovac | Inactivated + alum | Phase 2 and 1 | |
| 5. Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences | Inactivated | Phase 1 | |
| 6. Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical/ Institute of | Adjuvanted recombinant protein | Phase 1 | |
| 7. Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
7. People's Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Military Sciences/Walvax Biotech. |
mRNA | Phase 1 | |
| UK | 1. University of Oxford/AstraZeneca | Non- Replicating Viral Vector | Phase 3 |
| 2. Imperial College London | RNA | Phase1 | |
| Korea | Genexine Consortium | DNA Vaccine | Phase 1 |
| Russia | Gamaleya Research Institute | Adeno-based | Phase 1 |
| Australia | Vaxine pty Jointly with Korean company Medytox |
Recombinant spike protein with AdvaxTM adjuvant | Phase 1 |
| Germany | Curevac | mRNA | Phase1 |
| USA | Moderna/NIAID | LNP- encapsulated mRNA | Phase 2 and 1 |
| Inovio Pharmaceuticals/ International Vaccine Institute | DNA plasmid vaccine with electroporation | Phase 2 and 1 | |
| Novavax | Full length recombinant SARS CoV-2 glycoprotein nanoparticle vaccine adjuvanted with Matrix M | Phase 2 and 1 |
Aside from these, vaccine candidate SCB2019 is being developed jointly by the Shanghai-based Clover Biopharmaceuticals, Glaxo Smith Kline of the UK and Dynavax of the US – it is in phase one of clinical trials. The final one is the vaccine candidate jointly developed by BioNtech RNA pharmaceuticals, Shanghai Fosun Pharma and Pfizer, which is undergoing phase one and phase two of clinical trials in Europe.
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