Global Race of COVID Vaccine Development: Who Will Win

As everyone is hearing the news around the approval stage, clinical trials, efficacy rate of different Covid19 vaccines, which country will roll out first.

Countries are planning to buy Covid19 vaccines from different vaccine manufacturing companies and are drawing up plans for distributing and administering shots.

American companies Pfizer and Moderna

Upon authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the CDC has said first in line for vaccinations would be about 21 million healthcare workers and 3 million residents in long-term care facilities.

UK health authorities are planning to roll out in 48 hours a vaccine approved by it. Pfizer and BioNTech have started testing their vaccine in volunteers as young as 12.

Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after being cleared for emergency use is likely to be distributed in the United States. The country has plans to come out with 6.4 million doses initially next month (January 2021). But, before this happens, the US Food and Drug Administration will meet for one last time on 10 December to give a green signal for the roll out.

Across the US, 64 jurisdictions spread cross the 50 states - received their allocation numbers, but the federal government has not yet finalised as to who should be given preference – like elderly, high-risk, and frontline workers. It has been left to the local authorities to make the final decision.

Moderna

Moderna and the National Institutes for Health, is also planning to apply for emergency approval in the US after it announced that its vaccine showed some preliminary efficacy results last week. It has released its trial data showing their Covid vaccines to be about 95% effective.

It is being said that if regulators approve Pfizer or Moderna vaccines in the coming weeks, it will be left to governments around the world to use it for their people.

While Italy is expecting its deliveries from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca early next year, Spain has already made plans to roll out in January. Spain expects to cover a substantial part of the population by March 2021.

In Bulgaria, the country`s chief health inspector expects the first shipments in March-April. Hungary`s foreign minister said doses will land in the spring at the earliest.

Germany expects to roll out BioNTech’s vaccines from early 2021.

Britain’s AstraZeneca

After it meets rigorous safety standards, the British drug maker AstraZeneca expects 4 million doses to be available by the end of December, and roll it out before Christmas.

The UK government has already secured 100 million doses of the vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. And, though questions were raised about its trial data, Britain is confident when the pharma company said it may run another fresh trail to assess its efficacy.

Philippines said they would secure 2.6 million shots of AstraZeneca and are planning to go for a further deal for more 1 million doses.

Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine

The trials of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine are ongoing in multiple countries including India. The developers have announced that their vaccine effectively cures the disease. However, interpretations over the results have not given out more clarity.

After the vaccine has been authorised as an emergency measure from medical authorities in Russia, it had also been administered to a section of the population such as doctors and medical workers. The firm vaccine said it is “92% efficacious” in phase 3 trials conducted on 20 participants who were Covid19 positive. The second interim data analysis of the phase III clinical trials on Russia’s history involving 40,000 volunteers once again confirmed the high efficacy and its analysis saying the results demonstrated a 91.4% efficacy rate.

The Sputnik V trial’s protocol has not been made public, in contrast to those of Pfizer and some other leading candidates in phase III trials.

Russia agrees to produce Sputnik V vaccine in India

Russia and India have reached an agreement to mass-produce doses of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund), and Hetero, one of India’s leading generic pharmaceutical companies (through its biologics arm “Hetero Biopharma”) have agreed to produce in India over 100 million doses per year of the world’s first registered vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection – Sputnik V.

The parties intend to start the production of Sputnik V in the beginning of 2021.

China's Sinovac Biotech

China is moving ahead with its promise to provide affordable Covid19 vaccines for "all people".

Brazil, African nations and India are also expecting the Chinese vaccine if China approves it by the end of this year. China after looking at the interim results on its efficiency in the first week of December, will try to meet the urgent need of countries severely hit by the epidemic.

Once China gives its approval, Brazil could hasten its own approval process, but analysts say China prefers to be cautious and would not hasten at the cost of safety and efficacy, though it understands Brazil's urgent need for a vaccine.