Covid-19: Which vaccines are currently under Human clinical trials?

Team Udayavani, May 9, 2020, 6:01 PM IST

Covid-19 is rapidly spreading globally and has already led to more than 3.66 million positive cases. The cases will continue to rise in the coming days even if the precautionary measures have been imposed. Hence, health professionals around the world are developing an effective vaccination for Covid-19.

Here are some approaches that have been used before to create vaccines

Live vaccines

These vaccines prompt an immune response without causing disease. Live vaccines are used to protect against measles, mumps, rubella, smallpox and chickenpox.

Inactivated vaccines

This kind of vaccines uses a killed or inactive version of the germ that causes a disease. Inactivated vaccines are used to prevent the flu, hepatitis A and rabies.

Genetically engineered vaccines

These use genetically engineered RNA or DNA that has instructions for making copies of the S protein

The development of vaccines can take years. Especially when the vaccines involve new technologies that haven’t been tested for safety or adapted to allow for mass production.. Seven novel coronavirus vaccine candidates have entered human trials across the world

Ad5-nCoV

This vaccination is jointly developed jointly by CanSino Biological & Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, the Ad5-nCoV was the first vaccine to enter human trials for the treatment of novel coronavirus. The vaccine is currently in Phase 2 of clinical trials. The vaccine is expected to be come out in the beginning of 2021.

INO-4800 

This is developed by the US biotech firm Inovio Pharmaceuticals. The vaccine works by injecting DNA into the body of infected patient to treat Coronavirus. The DNA contains the genetic code of coronavirus’s spike proteins. The vaccine is expected to be ready by first half of 2021.

CHADOX1

It is developed by British scientists and is similar to the Chinese Ad5-nCoV in terms of the technique used to induce immunity. The trials will be conducted on 510 volunteers aging between 18 years to 55 years. This vaccination will also take a year or two to be ready. ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, the potential Oxford vaccine is prepared from a harmless virus found in chimpanzees,  which has been genetically engineered to carry a part of the novel coronavirus.

PiCoVacc

PiCoVacc is an inactivated vaccine developed by the private biopharma company Sinovac. Biopharma company Sinovac is carrying out the Phase 1/2 of clinical trials of purified inactivated Coronavirus vaccine. It has shown promising results as the experimental vaccine could help protect the rhesus macaques, a type of monkey originating in India, from the virus.It is expected to be ready around the end of year 2020.

INACTIVATED

The vaccine is developed by Chinese firm Beijing Institute of Biological Products. The vaccine is under Phase 2 of human trials and uses dead Coronavirus cells to trigger immunity against the deadly virus.

BNT162 mRNA

It is developed by the German company BioNTech and US pharma giant Pfizer, BT162 is a group of four potential vaccines based on the messenger RNA, or mRNA, concept. The phase 1 of clinical trials is underway and will involve trials on 200 volunteers. In the second phase, the trials will be conducted on high-risk age groups. It will take a year for the vaccine to complete the trials.

mRNA-1273

It is being developed  by US biotech firm Moderna. It relies on ‘information molecules’ to deliver instructions to human body cells on how to build a part of the novel coronavirus.

At present, almost 80 groups globally are working to develop  vaccination for Covid-19. Currently, there are 111 potential vaccines for the SARS-CoV-2 which are in different stages of clinical trials.