AstraZeneca leading in Covid-19 vaccine race, Moderna not far behind: WHO

Team Udayavani, Jun 28, 2020, 9:30 AM IST

Chief scientist of World Health Organization’s (WHO) said that AstraZeneca’s experimental Covid-19 vaccine is probably the world’s leading candidate and most advanced in terms of development,while US-based pharmaceutical major Moderna is not far behind.

WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan stated that the AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine candidate is the most advanced vaccine currently in terms of development.

It is said that AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate named AZD1222 (formerly known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19), has begun large-scale, mid-stage human trials of the vaccine The vaccine is developed by researchers at University of Oxford University.

However, Swaminathan said Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate was “not far behind” in the race of developing the Covid-19 vaccine.