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In Coronavirus Vaccine Hunt, a Race to Be FirstMay 08, 2020 07:39 PMWith billions of lives and trillions of dollars depending on a vaccine for COVID-19, scientists around the world are working to create an effective and safe candidate as quickly as possible.By some optimistic estimates, the world could see a vaccine in the coming months. Or it could take longer than 18 months. Or scientists may not be able to manufacture a vaccine at all.If scientists succeed, there will likely be enormous advantages for whoever controls it.Competing to be the first"The first country to the finish line will be first to restore its economy and global influence," said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.He said in a recent article published in The Wall Street Journal that as initial doses will be limited, a country will focus on inoculating most of its own population first.The priority for any country is to protect its own citizens, and governments may reserve supplies produced within their borders for their own use and stockpile doses for future outbreaks. Exports will likely be prohibited. Experts warn that even after development of a successful vaccine, it could take years to make enough of it to help other countries.
Special Report: Countries, companies risk billions in race for coronavirus vaccine(Reuters) - In the race to develop a vaccine to end the COVID-19 pandemic, governments, charities and Big Pharma firms are sinking billions of dollars into bets with extraordinarily low odds of success.They’re fast-tracking the testing and regulatory review of vaccines with no guarantee they will prove effective. They’re building and re-tooling plants for vaccines with slim chances of being approved. They’re placing orders for vaccines that, in the end, are unlikely to be produced.It’s the new pandemic paradigm, focused on speed and fraught with risks.< snipped >Historically, just 6% of vaccine candidates end up making it to market, often after a years-long process that doesn’t draw big investments until testing shows a product is likely to work. But the traditional rules of drug and vaccine development are being tossed aside in the face of a virus that has infected 2.7 million people, killed more than 192,000 and devastated the global economy. With COVID-19, the goal is to have a vaccine identified, tested and available on a scale of hundreds of millions of doses in just 12 to 18 months.Drug companies and the governments and investors that finance them are boosting their “at-risk” spending in unprecedented ways. The overriding consensus among more than 30 drug company executives, government health officials and pandemic-response experts interviewed by Reuters is that the risks are necessary to ensure not only that a vaccine for the new coronavirus is developed quickly, but that it is ready to distribute as soon as it’s approved.Investments from governments, global health groups and philanthropies have been aimed primarily at the most promising of the more than 100 vaccine candidates in development worldwide. But only a handful of those have advanced to human trials, the real indicator of safety and efficacy - and the stage where most vaccines wash out.Even among the more encouraging prospects, very few are likely to succeed. It’s possible more than one will work; it’s possible none will.
US to share COVID-19 vaccine to PH once available–EsperPublished June 14, 2020, 12:55 PMThis was the assurance made by US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in a conference call with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana last Friday, Independence Day (June 12).“Secretary Esper mentioned that developments on vaccines and therapeutics in the US are making very good progress, and expressed their willingness to share them with US allies and partners once available,” said Department of National Defense (DND) spokesperson Arsenio Andolong in a statement on Sunday.
Xi assures Duterte: PH gets ‘priority’ access once China develops vaccinePhilippine Daily Inquirer / 04:10 AM June 13, 2020“President Xi reiterated China’s commitment to the international community to make any vaccine it develops a global public good and that as a friendly neighbor, China certainly considers the Philippines as a priority,” Malacañang said in a statement.The President “emphasized the imperative of making vaccines accessible and affordable to all countries, including the Philippines,” it said. Both leaders vowed to boost bilateral, regional and global efforts to combat COVID-19, stressing international solidarity to address the pandemic’s health and socio-economic impact.
Operation Warp Speed commits $1.6 billion to Covid-19 vaccine maker NovavaxPublished Jul 7, 2020 9:16:20 PMNovavax is the fourth company to receive federal funds to conduct large-scale Phase 3 clinical trials and manufacture its Covid-19 vaccine. Each trial is expected to include 30,000 people.In May, the government awarded more than $1.2 billion to pharmaceutical giant AstraZenca for vaccine development. Moderna and Johnson & Johnson have also received Phase 3 contracts.Phase 1 clinical trial data from Novavax on 131 study subjects is expected by the end of the month, Erck said.Erck said he expects Novavax to begin those Phase 3 trials in the fourth quarter of this year, or possibly late in the third quarter.Moderna is expected to start its Phase 3 trial later this month. Some study subjects will get the vaccine and some will get a placebo, or an injection that does nothing.Novavax's $1.6 billion will allow the company to test the vaccine and scale up production in advance of its possible approval, with the aim of delivering 100 million doses by February, Erck said.Novavax's vaccine contains a small part of the coronavirus, called the spike protein, which sits atop the virus. The goal is to trick the immune system into thinking the spike is actually the entire virus. The immune system creates a response, which will then be used to attack the real virus.
China Sinopharm's potential COVID-19 vaccine triggers antibodies in clinical trials: journalAugust 14, 2020 / 2:37 PMBEIJING (Reuters) - A coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by a unit of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) appeared to be safe and triggered antibody-based immune responses in early and mid-stage trials, researchers said.The candidate has already moved into a late-stage trial, one of a handful of candidates being tested on several thousand people to see if they are effective enough to win regulatory approval.Sinopharm is testing the potential vaccine in the United Arab Emirates in a Phase 3 trial expected to recruit 15,000 people, as China has too few new cases to be a useful trial site.
Russia registers first COVID vaccine with Putin endorsementAugust 11, 2020 19:15 JSTMOSCOW, Aug 11 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had become the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing, a move hailed by Moscow as evidence of its scientific prowess.< snipped >Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, hailed the development as a historic "Sputnik moment", comparable to the Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first satellite.The vaccine will be marketed under the name 'Sputnik V' on foreign markets, he said.
