Coronavirus vaccine update: From Oxford trial pause to Sinovac's good results, here are all the updates regarding COVID vaccine development

Nine months on and over 25 million infection cases later, we are nowhere close to seeing the end of the pandemic. However, it is becoming evidently clear that having a COVID vaccine is closer than we thought. As many as 6 vaccine groups globally are in the middle of late scale testing and working to roll out doses for the population before others.

Here are all the updates regarding the top vaccines under contention right now:

University of Oxford and AstraZeneca backed COVID vaccine, which was one of the first ones to head to trials and consequently, start large scale phase III trials came to a temporary 'halt' this week (September 08), after one of the volunteers in the study developed neurological complications due to unexplained reasons.

Soon after, the multi-nation trials were also brought to a halt. Trials for the vaccine, which were in phase II and III in India were also paused, after Serum Institute of India received a show-cause notice.

While AstraZeneca dismissed the pause as routine and “voluntary” which happens “whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials”, adding that they are still researching if the adverse reaction was because of the vaccine or something else, the pause became a growing concern as to what experts have been speculating with the rushed COVID-19 vaccine timeline.

It's important to know that there's no evidence to suggest that the patient's neurological problems were mainly because of vaccine, or something else. The observations are still under study by the vaccine safety and regulatory board. Nonetheless, the discovery of such major side-effects right now is quite alarming. However, the pause is only a small glitch in the development journey. If anything, a hiccup like this could lead us to get a safer and more trustable vaccine.

India's first homegrown attempt to fight the pandemic, Covaxin has been pushed to speedy trials and now in the middle of mid-scale testing. According to experts, if all goes well, the timeline for vaccine delivery could be further expedited and India could see millions of doses ready by early 2021. The news comes after investigative officers found that the vaccine delivers safe and positive results, created a good immune response and no critical side-effects were observed as well.

Sanjay Rai, Professor, Community Medicine, and Principal Investigator for Covid-19 vaccine trial at AIIMS announced that phase II trials for COVAXIN will wrap by October and soon enough, be pushed into phase III. He also said that early results are an indication that the vaccine is better placed, and safer than Russia's Sputnik V.

"Phase 1 trial has been successfully completed. Phase 2 trial is most likely to get completed sometime in October. After this, the Phase 3 trial will begin. Covaxin may be launched in early 2021 (after completion of all trial stages)."

He also assured that the trials, which are being conducted pan India are being done in a safe manner.

"All rules and regulations are being followed...nothing is being done in a rush."

India's position as a leader in vaccine production can smoothen the manufacturing and delivery process as well. However, we must wait out for critical phase III results to learn if the vaccine will be able to protect billions or put them at risk.

The vaccine developed by China-based Sinovac Biotech Limited is also earning rave reviews for its efficacy. The vaccine, which is also in phase III of trials is being tested in Brazil, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Latest reports released from testing centres in Brazil have also confirmed the same. The governor of Brazil's São Paulo State said on Wednesday that Phase 3 clinical trials are underway and seeing the safe response, a vaccine might be made available for the population by early December.

As per agency reports, the vaccine prototype was able to work across age groups, delivering a 98% immune response in the elderly. Close to 9000 Brazilians are part of the trials.

Interestingly, China has reportedly already started inoculating parts of its population with the vaccine and production channels are being streamlined as well.
Sinovac's vaccine was also regulated for military use in early August. China is also overseeing the production of 5 other COVID vaccines, after being the first country to be affected by the pandemic.

Russia's Sputnik V has once again, found itself in troubled waters. While authorities get ready to roll out doses for the population in the first phase, eminent Russian doctors based out of Italy have written to the country's medical boards about finding discrepancies in the vaccine data. An agency report states that as many as 26 doctors and scientists have signed an open letter questioning the reliability of the data presented in the early-stage trial results of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine. The scientists said they saw patterns in the data that looked “highly unlikely" and asserted that phase I/II trial results data showed multiple participants reporting identical antibody levels.

Gameleya Institute, which is overseeing work on the vaccine not only rejected the claims but also challenged to show more trustable results in the late-stage trials, which are being carried out right now.

Even as controversies continue to surround the Russian vaccine, there are reports which suggest that the experimental vaccine could be made available for Indian public before other countries. Several other countries are also in contention to reserve doses for the vaccine.

Amidst all the controversies surrounding Oxford, US-based Moderna Therapeutics Inc's novel COVID vaccine, which is the first of the kind ever produced by the company on a large scale is the contender experts are looking forward to. Moderna, just like Oxford is undergoing critical phase III studies right now. The most recent observations also gave Moderna an advantage over others when it was seen that the vaccine delivered little to no side-effects for the elderly population, making it so far, 'safe' to use. The vaccine, made using a novel mRNA technology works by eliciting an immune response and spiking antibodies in the body.

Apart from this, Moderna, which has also entered into strategic partnerships with pharma giants and government authorities is expected to win up to $300 million for early vaccine approval and procure additional funds for quicker delivery. The company was amongst the first ones to announce that they will be selling their vaccine, once approved, as per pandemic pricing rules.