Coronavirus Vaccine: Is It Coming?

If any of these virology/vaccine research laboratories could offer a safe and effective concoction this year, it would be the fastest vaccine development in history. Even the Ebola vaccine, which was quickly tested, took five years to reach widespread trials. The most important thing about the coronavirus vaccine is that it is safe and effective, and that is what we want.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, infection experts said it would take at least 12 to 18 months to develop a vaccine against the virus. And some questions to come to our minds: how long does immunity last after vaccination? and if people become immune after being infected with COVID-19, how long will it last?

As the novel coronavirus continues to develop even faster than originally predicted, several pharmaceutical companies are keeping pace with their ambitious schedules.Six vaccine candidates have already participated in Phase I human clinical trials to test whether the vaccine is safe, can trigger an immune response and effectively prevent disease. If the vaccines prove to be safe and effective, they will overcome all the challenges associated with expanding to billions of people around the world.

Pfizer is one of the leading players in Operation Warp Speed, and in an interview, Pfizer's CEO said he hopes his company can begin shipping the vaccine by the end of 2019 and provide hundreds of millions of doses by the end of 2020. The US has set a target of providing 1.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021. According to the company, up to 2.2 million more doses will be distributed in the late 2020s and early 2021s.

Researchers at Imperial College London have developed a self-reinforcing RNA vaccine that boosts the immune system's ability to stimulate the body's response to infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Phase I and II trials began on June 15, and they have teamed up with Morningside Ventures to manufacture and distribute the vaccine through a new company called VacEquity Global Health.

American company Merck announced that it was developing a vaccine from the vesicular stomatitis virus - the same approach it used to produce the only approved Ebola vaccine, after successfully using it in human trials in the US and Europe in 2014 and 2015. It is also working with the Austrian company (Themis Bioscience) it acquired to develop the second vaccine, which uses the measles virus to transmit genetic material from a patient's cells.

Bharat Biotech, together with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology, announced approval for human trials for their Covaxin vaccine, an inactivated rabies virus designed with coronavirus proteins. Maryland-based Novavax began clinical trials of a vaccine made up of microscopic particles carrying fragments of coronavirus proteins. The vaccine uses the coronvirus protein and protein fragments to trigger an immune response.

New vaccines are manufactured using a new process that is much faster and cheaper - more effective than traditional methods of producing vaccines. Traditionally, it takes a decade or more for new vaccines to be developed from development to approval, and then a year or two to be approved. Once the regulatory process concludes that the vaccine is safe, pharmaceutical companies must overheat production before they can produce enough vaccine to increase the immunity of a broader population.

The vaccines, which contains no adjuvants, will be tested for safety and efficacy before it is approved in the United States. These tests will be conducted in animal models and human clinical trials, and the CDC and FDA will closely monitor them until they are approved. Patients have now been enrolled in a clinical trial of the vaccine in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other chronic diseases.

COVID-19 vaccines will likely be coming to all of us and we all hope it will be here sooner in its safest versions, so that everyone can be protected and work together safely towards the new normal.