COVID-19: Vaccine possible by 2021—is hope on the horizon?

Is there currently a vaccine against the new Coronavirus (COVID-19)?

Many different drug companies have spent months trying to answer the question “What is still needed to make the right vaccine for COVID-19?” Many are still trying to figure out how to finish the vaccine and to get it approved, and although several companies have announced that they are developing candidate vaccines, they are unlikely to play an important role in the current outbreak.

In the United States, candidate vaccines could not pass appropriate preclinical and clinical trials, as well as regulatory and production processes in just a few weeks. Typically, in non-explosive situations, vaccine development could cost as much as $1 billion or more and often take years to approve. Having said that, in the event of an outbreak, some concessions can be made, and the medical community is doing a better job of developing platform technologies, making it faster to develop more viable candidate vaccines.

Globally, COVID-19’s treatment pipeline includes about 15 potential candidates for vaccines. These vaccines use a variety of different techniques, involving different media such as DNA, messenger RNA (mRNA), nanoparticles, synthetic and modified virus-like particles. There are two main candidates being developed in the U.S.; from Inovio Pharmaceuticals and Moderna Therapeutics, in partnership with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Both vaccines rely on specific mechanisms of “platform technology.” In other words, both vaccines consist of a primary nuclear structure (in this case, RNA or DNA), which can be applied to a variety of viruses by inserting the relevant gene sequences of the virus of interest. This structure is equivalent to a platform for more effective development of candidate vaccines to fight new viruses, such as COVID-19.

Virologist Jose Esparza commented on Moderna’s candidate vaccine, saying “The rapid production of RNA vaccines is great. However, preclinical trials are important for assessing safety before small-scale Phase I clinical trials can be carefully conducted in human volunteers. In particular, an infectious enhancement of antibody dependence may occur, which is caused by antibody binding rather than neutrality.”

 Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan said on September 12th that “While no date has been fixed for the vaccine launch, it may be ready by the first quarter of 2021…” He also added that he would voluntarily take the first dosage if there were any safety concerns. 

Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan speaking at a press conference Courtesy of rediff.com.

There are many concerns as to the government taking full precautions in human trials of vaccines and drawing up a detailed strategy on how to immunize the entire population. Vardhan mentioned “Issues like vaccine security, cost, equity, cold-chain requirements, production timelines etc., are also been discussed intensely.” According to Vardhan, the government had considered authorizing emergency COVID vaccines to senior citizens and high risk workers.

Featured Image –There are more than 7,800,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in USA and continuously increasing death cases Courtesy of CNN Allison Flexner.

by Gina Chang