US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which is developing a possible coronavirus vaccine with BioNTech, has said it could have the vaccine in November. Pfizer Inc has announced that it could apply for US authorization for the vaccine in November.
Meanwhile, the Russian vaccine against the coronavirus (Sputnik V) that suffered a setback in India, may again resume the clinical trials that Dr. Reddy’s /
There are more than 150 coronavirus vaccine candidates in the global race, with approximately 10 of them in phase III clinical trials. Some of the top contenders that are expected with great anticipation are the Pfizer vaccine, the Oxford and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Moderna and Sinovac from China, among others.
PFIZER VACCINE FOR NOVEMBER?
Pfizer has announced that it could apply for US authorization for the coronavirus vaccine it is developing with German partner BioNTech in November. The announcement has raised hopes of having a vaccine against the coronavirus starting in November. Shortly after the release, Pfizer shares rose 3.4% in the markets.
While Pfizer has made the announcement, it has also said that researchers are awaiting safety data from 44,000 people who participated in clinical trials and that it will not be available until next month. US President Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election in the November elections, had promised a coronavirus vaccine in the United States for next month.
“Let me be clear, assuming positive data, Pfizer will apply for the use of emergency authorization in the US shortly after the safety milestone is achieved in the third week of November,” Pfizer CEO said Friday, Albert Bourla.
VACCINE IN INDIA IN MARCH?
The Serum Institute of India (SII), which is making the coronavirus vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, hopes that if regulators give the green signal, India could have a vaccine by March next year.
Two coronavirus vaccine candidates are in advanced stages of testing in India and IBS executive director Dr. Suresh Jadhav told The Indian Express that the country could have a vaccine in March if all drug regulators they give the green signal.
Jadhav believes that with several drug manufacturers working at work, India is poised to have a coronavirus vaccine early next year. In addition to the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, India’s own Bharat Biotech, which is developing Covaxin, is also in phase III clinical trials.
DR REDDY WILL GET NOD FOR TESTING IN INDIA
After India’s drug regulator stopped conducting clinical trials by Dr. Reddy’s labs for the Russian coronavirus Sputnik V vaccine, sources told PTI that the panel recommended granting the lab permission to continue testing.
The Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company had reapplied on Oct. 13 to the Comptroller General of Drugs of India (DCGI) for permission to conduct combined Phase II and Phase III human clinical trials of the Russian vaccine in India.
In its revised protocol, the firm stated that the Phase II trial would include 100 subjects, while the Phase III trials would involve 1,400 volunteers, PTI reported. The subject matter expert committee (SEC) on Covid-19 deliberated on the app on Friday.
On October 5, the SEC requested Dr. Reddy’s to reapply, stating that it will have to conduct Phase II and III clinical trials and that it cannot directly conduct a Phase III trial for the Covid-19 vaccine in India. .
GREAT BRITAIN MAY INFECT VOLUNTEERS WITH COVID-19
A British biotech company has said that a clinical trial of a vaccine in which volunteers are deliberately infected with Covid-19 could become a reality and that it was in advanced talks with the government to obtain permission.
HVIVO, a unit of pharmaceutical services company Open Orphan, is conducting preliminary work for the trials, which aim to speed up the process of determining the efficacy of a candidate vaccine, hVIVO said Friday.
If agreed, this would involve creating a human challenge study model that could be used if such trials gain safety and ethical approval from regulators, Reuters reported.
Supporters of human provocation trials say they are a good way to shorten the often lengthy process of testing potential vaccines on tens of thousands of real-world volunteers who lead normal lives and are monitored for the disease. disease or are protected. of that.
WHO ABOUT THE RUSSIAN VACCINE
Russia has already approved its second coronavirus vaccine candidate and the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday it has had a “good dialogue” with the developers of the new vaccine. “We can only have a position on a vaccine when we see the results of phase III clinical trials,” said WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan at a news conference in Geneva.
CHINESE SINOVAC VACCINE FOR SALE
China’s Sinovac Biotech is still in phase III trials of its coronavirus vaccine candidate and even before the results could be analyzed, a Chinese city began offering the vaccine to essential workers and other high-risk groups at a price of 60 dollars.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Chinese city of Jiaxin said in a statement on WeChat that two doses of the candidate vaccine, called CoronaVac, will cost 200 yuan ($ 29.75) per dose and that the Vaccines for key groups, including medical professionals, have begun.
According to Reuters, Sinovac did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Its vaccine is in late-stage trials in Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey, and the company has said an interim analysis of data from the phase III trial could arrive in early November.
(With input from PTI and Reuters)
