Coronavirus: The search for a vaccine by Millie Moyses

 

As we head into our second national lockdown of the pandemic, the pressure on finding a vaccine for COVID-19 is bigger than ever as this is the only real solution to combat the virus. A vaccine works by introducing antigens from the virus to trigger an immune response. By injecting these antigens into the body, the immune system can learn to recognise them and produce antibodies and remember them for the future. Our immune systems can then recognise the antigens if the virus or bacteria reappears and attack before the pathogen can spread and cause sickness. So far, we have 11 vaccines in the final stages of testing, this stemmed from 154 in pre-clinical trials, 21 into phase 1 of small-scale safety trials, 12 into phase 2 of expanded safety trials and now 11 into phase 3 of wider testing and the effectiveness assessed. There are currently several different types of vaccines being worked on right now all with different approaches to attacking the virus. A new technique includes the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines which inject pieces of the coronavirus’ genetic code.  Once inside the body, this starts making viral proteins to train the body. The Oxford and Russian vaccines take a harmless virus that infects chimpanzees and genetically modify it to resemble coronavirus, in the hope of getting a response. Two of the big China-made vaccines use the original virus but in a disabled form, so it cannot cause an infection.

In October, Modern announced that they had finished recruiting all 30,000 participants in the study, including 7,000 people 65 years or older. Moderna’s trial protocol, which the company shared in September, indicates they will wait until a significant number of volunteers become sick before seeing how many of them were vaccinated. If their results meet the FDA’s benchmarks, Moderna could potentially apply for an emergency use authorization by the end of 2020. In comparison, Pfizer and BioNTech quickly started clinical trials in Germany and the U.S. But unlike Moderna, the pair advanced four prototypes, each with subtle differences, before choosing one to take into late-stage testing. A Phase 2/3 trial began on July 28 and has now surpassed its initial goal of enrolling 30,000 volunteers, although the companies are recruiting another 14,000 to ensure better representation of minority groups. The Trump administration awarded a $1.9 billion contract in July for 100 million doses to be delivered by December and the option to acquire 500 million more doses. Meanwhile, Japan made a deal for 120 million doses, and the European Union arranged to purchase 200 million doses. If their vaccine is authorized, Pfizer and BioNTech expect to manufacture over 1.3 billion doses of their vaccine worldwide by the end of 2021. It is predicted that the first people to be vaccinated are those most at risk: frontline workers such as medical staff, and people who are older or have medical conditions such as diabetes, who are most likely to contract severe disease. The reality is no one knows when a vaccine will be ready, vaccines to fight infectious diseases usually take years to develop, test and deliver. Currently, it is a race for a vaccine to be ready by Christmas or early next year but the WHO has said it doesn’t expect widespread vaccinations against coronavirus until mid-2021.