Pfizer claims: COVID 19 vaccine by October
COVID 19 is going nowhere, and the world is racing to manufacture vaccines to eradicate this epidemic. So far over 120 vaccines have been proposed across the world. Currently, there are at least 10 candidate vaccines in clinical evaluation and 115 candidate vaccines in pre-clinical evaluation.
Last month, Pune based vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII) declared that it has partnered with the University of Oxford in the UK for the COVID-19 vaccine trial. Their vaccine is based on an adenovirus vaccine vector and the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and has been produced in Oxford.
“Our team has been working closely with Dr Hill from Oxford University, and we are expecting to initiate production of the vaccine in 2-3 weeks and produce 5 million doses per month for the first 6 months..”, as told by Adar Poonawala, CEO of Serum Institute India (SII), Pune.
Earlier this month, Italian company ReiThera said its Covid-19 vaccine had shown a ‘strong immune response’ in animals. "The antibodies are able to prevent the infection and the T cells eliminate the virus that has already entered the organism," it said.
Their preliminary results from lab tests showed the antibodies created in test mice were able to stop human cells being infected with the coronavirus.
Close to home, The Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) that is currently held by Shripad Yesso Naik, said that it will conduct trials for few chosen herbs (Ashwagandha, Guduchi, Mulethi) and an ayurvedic anti-malaria medicine AYUSH-64, along with the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) - India’s largest body for conducting research and development and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Again, at the same time, The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) announced research collaboration with Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Ltd (BBIL) to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. The ICMR said in a statement that it had transferred the virus strain isolated at the National Institute of Virology, Pune (an ICMR institute) to BBIL.
And now, global pharmaceutical major Pfizer believes that a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 could be ready by the end of October as declared by the company's CEO Albert Bourla.
Pfizer is conducting clinical trials in the US and Europe for the BNT162 vaccine programme to prevent COVID-19 in collaboration with German mRNA company BioNTech.
Bourla made the comments while participating at a virtual event organised by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) this week. He said, "If things go well and the stars are aligned, we will have enough evidence of safety and efficacy for us to feel comfortable, for the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) to feel comfortable, and for the EMA (European Medicines Agency) to feel comfortable, to have a vaccine around the end of October.”
Speakers at the event also included AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot, GlaxoSmithKline chief Emma Walmsley, Johnson & Johnson Chief Scientific Officer Paul Stoffels.
Each of these companies is working with their partners to develop a vaccine to prevent the disease. While GSK has joined forces with Sanofi, AstraZeneca is backing the vaccine being developed at the University of Oxford. J&J is collaborating with the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to develop its vaccine.
According to the WHO, “It is important to evaluate as many vaccines as possible as we cannot predict how many will turn out to be viable. To increase the chances of success, it is critical to test all candidate vaccines until they fail.”
Pfizer and BioNTech's development programme includes four vaccine candidates, each representing a different combination of mRNA format and target antigen. The novel design of the trial allows for the evaluation of the various mRNA candidates simultaneously in order to identify the safest and potentially most efficacious candidate in a greater number of volunteers, in a manner that will facilitate the sharing of data with regulatory authorities in real-time.
"With our unique and robust clinical study program underway, starting in Europe and now the U.S., we look forward to advancing quickly and collaboratively with our partners at BioNTech and regulatory authorities to bring a safe and efficacious vaccine to the patients who need it most," Bourla said in a statement earlier this month.
"The short, less than four-month timeframe in which we've been able to move from pre-clinical studies to human testing is extraordinary and further demonstrates our commitment to dedicating our best-in-class resources, from the lab to manufacturing and beyond, in the battle against COVID-19," he added.
The breadth of this programme should allow the production of millions of vaccine doses in 2020, increasing to hundreds of millions in 2021, Pfizer said.
With all concerned parties striving hard to find a remedy to this disastrous pandemic, we can only wait until things take a turn for good; but with these ‘Knights in shining armour’, the wait can possibly cease soon!
