COVID-19 Global Roundup: How close are we to a vaccine?

The University of Oxford said last Wednesday their COVID-19 vaccine team has seen the right sort of immune response in trials but declined to give a firm timeframe for when will be ready.

Meanwhile in China, the Central Military Commission approved the use of a COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by its research unit and CanSino Biologics after clinical trials proved it was safe and showed some efficacy, the company said in a filing on June 25.

The shot also won approval for human testing in Canada.

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Regarded as the most effective solution and holding the key to reopening economies, a coronavirus vaccine has repeatedly attracted global attention. But, there are many steps before it will be fully useful, so how close are we now to a usable vaccine?

From lab to clinic: therisks of accelerated testing

The pandemic has sparked research mobilization. Testing is underway on five experimental vaccines in China and four in the U.S.

Normally, it takes years of research and testing before vaccines reach clinics. But with fears that the pandemic could re-intensify anytime, over 140 teams of scientists have been racing to produce asafe and effective vaccineby 2021.

However, the road ahead is uncertain.

The race began in January and the first vaccine safety trial in humans started in March. Some have failed and others ended without any clear results. Only a few succeeded in moving to the next phase.

A laboratory monkey used in the development of an mRNA type vaccine candidate for the coronavirus disease at the National Primate Research Center in Thailand. /Reuters

Normally, researchers would take months testing vaccines in animals. Given the urgency to stem the spread of the new coronavirus, some drugmakers are moving straight into small-scale human tests, without waiting for the completion of such animal tests.

The world's experts have concluded that this accelerated testing is a risk worth taking.

At a specially convened World Health Organization (WHO) meeting in mid-February, designed to co-ordinate a global response to the new coronavirus, scientists representing government-funded research organizations and drugmakers around the world agreed that the threat was so great that vaccine developers should move quickly into human trials before animal testing is completed, four people who attended the meeting told Reuters.

"You want to have a vaccine as quickly as possible," Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, former assistant director-general at the WHO, who co-chaired the meeting, said. "You have to balance this with the risk that you impose on a very small number of people, and do all you can do to mitigate this risk as much as possible."

A researcher works inside a laboratory at the National Primate Research Center of Chulalongkorn University during the development of an mRNA type vaccine candidate in Saraburi, Thailand in June. /Reuters

The vaccine race is on

Global researchers are developing more than 145 vaccines to fight against the coronavirus and dozens are in different phases of human tests now.

Moderna Inc confirmed its plan to start a coronavirus vaccine trial with 30,000 volunteers in July as the company is about to enter the final testing stage. Soon after the announcement, the company's shares jumped five percent in premarket trading.

Another COVID-19 vaccine developed by German biotech firm BioNTech and U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has shown potential and was found to be well tolerated in early-stage human trials, the companies announced on Wednesday.

The drug is one of 17 being tested on humans in a frantic global race to find a vaccine to end a pandemic that has infected 10.5 million people and killed more than half a million so far.

BioNTech's shares were up about eight percent after rising as much as 19 percent to reach their highest in more than three months.

Singapore announced on June 16 that scientists were testing a COVID-19 vaccine from U.S. firm Arcturus Therapeutics and plan to start human trials in August after promising initial responses in mice.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivers his speech to the Global Vaccine Summit (GAVI) via Zoom on June 4. /Reuters

A two-tiered world

As nations rush to ease lockdown restrictions, concerns over some trying to secure early supplies of vaccines are growing, as this will leave poorer nations behind.

In June, it was reported that the U.S. has bought up virtually all the stocks of the three-month supply of remdesivir. Such unilateral action will also have wilder implications when a vaccine is available.

The buying-up of remdesivir has stirred global debate about equitable access to drugs and treatment, especially in some developed regions where coronavirus infection rates are still high.

"It signals an unwillingness to cooperate with other countries, and this has chilling effects on international agreements about intellectual property rights," said Ohid Yaqub, senior lecturer at the Science Policy Research Unit of Britain's University of Sussex.

Similarly, in May, the French multinational pharmaceutical giantSanofi provoked uproar when its CEO announcedthat the U.S. Food Drug Administration (FDA) regulator had granted a priority review for Sanofi's sutimlimab product, which treats hemolysis in adults suffering from cold agglutinin disease.

(With input from agencies)